Bella the Nightstalker
by HappyHufflepuff-RebelRavenclaw
Summary: One of the sole survivors of a bloody battle with the Volturi, Bella has become a vigilante to give her life purpose. But as the American magical world slips into anarchy, can her kick-ass form of justice save the lives of her few loved ones that remain?
1. A Clap of Thunder

Hello! Usually Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw write together but this is written by Ravenclaw, with wonderful editing by the lovely Hufflepuff! She wanted this disclaimer so you don't think she's a Twilight fan. But I am, or I would be still, if Breaking Dawn had ended like this. Enjoy, please.

/

Chapter 1

Bella sat atop a towering building in downtown Seattle, staring out at the swarming cars below. They lit up the night like fireflies, not that actual fireflies would be out in the cold, pounding rain. She closed her eyes peacefully, unconcerned with the deafening crack of thunder from above her. It would take more than a dinkly little string of electrons to damage her.

Behind her lids waited a fearsome scene; one she continually relived in abject horror.

"The child may not be a vampire," Aro said slowly. "But that does not mean she is not dangerous were we to let her go."

Bella was sweating bullets behind her expression of forced calm. She grabbed Edward's hand tightly; he winced at her newborn vampire strength. If only Alice would return, maybe she would know what to do...

But Alice did not return. The two legions of vampires tensed.

"Don't you have any proof of her safety, Cullens?" said Caius mockingly. "Carlisle, my friend, I would have expected better of you. These... legions you have gathered, surely, must be present for form of proof in some way? Or were you aware you were asking for a war?"

"We do not want war," Carlisle said softly.

Bella forced her eyes open again. She could not bear the HD quality memory she seemed to have. It was just another curse of her vampirism. She blocked out the best she could the recollection of Edward's pale, beautiful limbs being torn from his bodies; the retched, acrid stentch of the smoke of her family's vampire bodies being destroyed once and for all; Jacob throwing her daughter behind him, charging into battle; Jane placing her cold menacing hands on Renesme; Bella running across the clearing through the carnage to save her; her too-late attempt. The battle was over.

"KILL ME! YOU KILLED MY FAMILY! KILL ME! FINISH YOUR BLOODY JOB!" she screamed.

"We do not like to spill the blood of fellow vampires," said Aro gently. "Be greatful we are this merciful."

"Bella, let's go," cooed Jacob. She could tell by the slight tremor in his normally strong and gruff voice that he was doing his best not to beg the Volturi for the same favor.

"We're not very tolerant of shape-shifters, however," snarled Jane in her girly voice. Jacob suddenly seized over, his face contorting grotesquely in pain.

Bella stared down at her best friend, in incredible pain and in danger of dying. She looked out on the clearing, covered in the blood of her werewolf friends. She looked at the still burning corpses of her family, now torn to shreds, and the small, dead hand of her daughter. And something inside of her snapped. With a wild cry, she launched herself at Jane, ripping off her head with her teeth and twirling it by the blonde hair until she threw it like a mace into the face of Marcus. He fell and after that it was easy; the remaining members of the Volturi were only the cold old men; men much too slow to keep up with Bella's newfound powers. She added them to the flames of her bretheren, a twisted smile creeping up her face as she finished her job. The vampire world could kiss her sparkly butt.

That was the only part of her recollections that Bella could look back on with any amount of fondness. She felt the guilt of so much murder creeping through her veins, but it also released addrennaline into her system, rechristening her determination to stop any more vampiric evil with her victory's cathartic power and rage.

"Bella, don't jump," said Jacob, walking up behind her. "First the cliff, and now a skyscraper... I can't keep up with you any more," he joked lightly. Jacob was fatigued with anger; Bella seemed to relish it. It frightened him, and he was determined to shake her out of it.

She just frowned. "You know I've always had a problem with living ordinarily," she said, yet unsmiling. "And paying enough attention to myself. I've never liked being noticed. All I want to do is take care of others. And now that I've got no one to take care of me..."

"It's all you have left, I know," said Jacob. "And as much as I thoroughly enjoy tearing bloodsuckers to shreds"-she glared at him for the dig and he just elbowed her diamond hard side-"you gotta level with me. There's no way you can destroy _all_ the evil vampires _all_ over the world. Especially since basically all the satisfactory ones were destroyed in... well... you know..."

Bella did not wince at his allusion. She had already tried to cry it out; but vampires literally could not cry. When she was finally done dry sobbing, she slaughtered nearly every mountain lion in the Olympic Peninsula and gorged herself on animal blood. She would miss the red-eye look; it was growing on her, but at least the newly gold irises would mock the devils that prowled the world in search of innocent humans to destroy.

"That's why I'm starting with Seattle," she said simply.

"If you need a new purpose, we could always restart up our motocycles," he said. "I doubt you'd be daunted by any trees these days..."

"Honestly, Jake, do you really think cheap thrills will satisfy me anymore?" she said cuttingly. "After what happened to Edward, do you think I can rest until he is avenged?"

"You avenged him already, Bella! I saw you! You tore the Volturi to pieces!" he scowled. "You're starting to sound like... Victoria."

"Shut up!" she raged, but stopped short. Below, in the alley on the left side of the building, a young man was backing up slowly as a taller, thinner dark haired figure stalked him. When Bella saw the slight glint coming off his skin in the street light, she ran, as quick as lightning and swan dove off the building.

"Here we go again," said Jake, beginning his tremors and phasing before he followed her into battle.


	2. A Bit Confunded

Chapter 2

Alice groaned and fluttered open her eyes. The unmistakable smell of a hospital flooded her nostrils. "Carlisle?" she moaned under her breath, half expecting him to be at her bedside, piecing her back together.

When her vision came into focus, however, he saw an unfamiliar face peering into hers nervously. "Calm down, miss, you're going to be okay," said a pretty dark haired girl, probably in her mid twenties. She caught a whiff of her pungent blood; definitely a human.

"I have to be honest, I do not often treat vampires," said the doctor. "You're partiticularly unusual. You seem to be nearly impervious to sunlight, which is odd, and your fangs are minimal. Am I right in assuming you're North or South American? Possibly Eastern European?"

Alice was quite taken aback. "I'm from Forks, Washington. Excuse me, but could you tell me where am I? Last time I remember, Jasper and I were following a lead in Scotland..."

"Is Jasper your companion?" the doctor asked gently.

"Yeah, we're married," she said. "What's the date?"

"August 8, 2007," the doctor replied.

Alice gasped. She had been out of the count for, what, a month? "I've been here a month?"

"You sustained serious injuries in a run in with some less friendly vampires," she explained. "Limbs torn off, trying to reassemble themselves. It took some time for our healers to get you put together."

"Where's Jasper? Is he okay?"

The healer frowned. "I'm... so sorry..."

Alice sank back into the sheets. "Is there any way I could contact my coven? Do you have telephones?"

The healer looked at her in confusion. "Telephones?"

"Yeah, you talk into them and someone else on the other side can hear you. Haven't you heard of them before?"

"Is that some muggle thing?"

"Muggle? What?"

The healer looked at Alice very concernedly. "Perhaps... perhaps I ought to talk to one of my superiors about this..." she said. She turned from the bed and caught another healer by the arm who was walking down the ward.

"Is something wrong, Healer Chang?"

"Yes. My patient... seems to be a bit... confunded or something. Ignorant of our world."

The older healer nodded and approached Alice's bedside. He picked up a clipboard on her bedside and looked it over in confusion. "What's your name, miss...?"

"Alice Cullen."

"Miss Cullen, we need to have a little talk."


	3. Bloodsucker Banter

Chapter 3

"Hey tall, dark, and creepy!" called Bella. The vampire whipped around. She recognized his pointed face as a vampire deserter of Victoria's army. The recognition strengthened her ire. "Hungry, are you? Cause I'll feed you a fist full of destruction!"

Jacob rolled his wolf eyes. She may be a fairly effective vigilante in practice, but her one-liners could use some work.

"What do we have here?" drawled the dark vampire disdainfully. "Little Orphan Annie and Lassie? You're not fooling anyone with these heroics, _Cullen_. No one actually believes you killed off the Volturi single handedly. And, frankly, I don't understand why you're running with that puppy dog. You couldn't get more than your daughter's sloppy seconds?"

Bella growled and launched herself at the surly vampire. Her iron fist made contact with the side of his face and produced a booming crack echoing the thunder in the sky. He spit a sharp tooth out the side of his mouth and dove for her with her teeth. She dodged at the speed of life and he landed in the waiting jaws of Jacob. Jacob tore off his arm and tossed it into a cluster of trashcans in the alleyway, causing some angry cats to hiss and bail ship. He roared and doubled back to seize Bella, who ably swerved and caught his other arm, ripping it off with superhuman strength. His momentary pause of shock was all Bella needed to pounce on his shoulders and decapitate him; his bodiless head reflected his last expression of mingled shock and terror. She grinned down on the pitiful head and threw it in a pile with the rest of the body.

"It won't light fire in this rain, Bella," Jacob said skeptically.

Bella sighed assent. "We may have to finish the job later. This was immensely satisfying, nonetheless."

"For you, maybe," said the puny human, who she had all but forgotten in her fight. "I had him myself, Bella, though I won't pretend that wasn't fun to watch you go medieval. If only you were that intense in PE class, our volleyball team would have had a fighting chance."

"Mike Newton, is that you?" she said, her shock overcoming her saucy facade.

"I didn't only persue you for two years because your hot bod," Mike said. "You're not the only vampire hunter in Washington."

"You were using me to get to my boyfriend?" she said, angry. "You're even _more_ of a D-Bag than I thought, Mike."

He shrugged, impervious to her insults. "Basically. And I can overcome this little rain problem." Mike pulled out a thin rod of wood and waved it. "Impervio. Incendio." The body parts of the vampire dried despite the rain and burst into flame.

Bella stared at him, mouth agape. "You're... you're... a wizard or something?"

"I'm not at liberty to say," said Mike.

Jacob groaned. "What the fluffy kittens? Is every single myth real?"

No one had an answer to his question, and they watched the evil vampire's corpse burn in silence.

/

Note: So as of right now, I'm writing Chapter 12. Suffice to say _Bella_ will update regularly for _at least_ three months. So, hooray?


	4. Alone in a Crowded Ministry

Chapter 4

Alice Cullen wore a tattered, heavy blue scarf Healer Chang lent her and dark sunglasses to shield her shining face from bystanders. Chang, the older healer she now knew was named Jonesy, and a heavy security escort named Greg Goyle led her down the crowded streets of London to a nonconspicuous telephone booth on a street corner. The two healers stepped in, dialled some numbers on the booth, and it sank to the ground. When it resurfaced, Greg escorted Alice inside, dialled 62442, and said, "St. Mungo's Security Officer Gregory Goyle, escorting vampire Alice Cullen to the Department of Magical Creatures." It printed out two badges and began to move downwards.

"I'm sorry for your loss," he said gruffly in the awkwardly cramped ride. His girth took up most of the room in the small booth.

"Thank you," she said sullenly. She found it hard to support her spirits when Jasper was dead and for all she knew, the Volturi could have come and went in her absence before she could find a mature half vampire to help Bella's cause.

Not soon enough, the telephone booth had reached some sort of atrium. People dressed in Volturi-esque robes scurried about, waving curious little wands and bustling in and out of fireplaces and into a large, old style elevator.

Goyle met up with the two healers who then boarded the elevator. Several floors sped past until they reached the necessary department. They brought her into the main department office and sat in a few leather chairs in front of a desk at which sat a young, sort of frumpy witch pouring over some legal books and paperwork. A miniature desk sign proclaimed this studious witch was "HERMIONE J. WEASLEY, HEAD OF DEPT. MAGICAL CREATURES."

Jonesy cleared his throat and the woman looked up. "Ah. Healer Chang. Healer Jonesy. Mr. Goyle. And I take it this is Mrs. Cullen," she said, shaking their hands in turn. "Let's get to business, shall we? Have you brought her medical evaluation?"

Chang nodded and handed over a manilla envelope containing the evaluation. Weasley skimmed the document, nodding and smiling as if it confirmed some unspoken theory. "If you'll take this to the research department, down the hall, first door on the right," she said to Chang.

"My patient is not yet fully recovered. It's my duty to stay with her," said Chang.

The woman sighed, exasperated. "Cho, she'll be perfectly fine. You all can leave, what I have to say only concerns Mrs. Cullen."

The three warily left the room, leaving Alice with Hermione.

"As soon as I heard about your case, Mrs. Cullen, I headed off to the library to do some research on vampire wars," Hermione said, a slight tone of disgust seeping into her otherwise professional voice. "Needless to say, there is an extremely bloody precedent, especially in the Americas. That said, the Ministry knows that the most recent massacre in Forks, Washington, is no exception," she said, her final sentence gentle. She saw Alice was in danger of crying, if vampires could cry.

"They're... They're all dead," Alice said, her girlish voice shaking. She said it more as a fact than as a question.

"That's where it becomes a bit complicated," Hermione said. "Reports have been conflicting as to the exact extent of the casualties. We have been working with our American counterparts to try to determine the impact of the battle. Rumors have been circulating that the Volturi of Italy have been decimated, which would dramatically impact our policy towards vampires... they always seemed to regulate their kind and we don't ask questions." Hermione pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to combat her newest stress headache. "But I digress."

"The _Volturi_ were decimated?" Alice asked, hope rising in her voice. "So the Cullens won then?"

"I don't know about your coven in particular. I don't even know if the Volturi were truly destroyed. But I do know that at least in that particular region, anarchy is beginning to reign-vampires are taking out their aggressions on each other, and humans have been bearing the brunt of the conflict. Point being, we are willing to offer you asylum, as our department has been taking extra precautions about vampires and may be able to keep you safe. If you are related to this troublesome coven then I would strongly recommend you remain in our country under Ministry supervision, or you may be walking into your death in Washington."

Alice frowned. Without Jasper, and possibly without the rest of the Cullens, she had no one. The least she should do is return to America and try to salvage the remains of her family. But if they were actually involved in such a bloody battle with the Volturi, their chances of survival were minimum.

Hermione seemed to note her train of thought. "At least accept our offer until all this turmoil dies down. Our department is monitoring the situation, and if we truly suspect a threat, the Minister is planning on sending an international Auror team to assist the American ministry in calming things down."

Alice frowned. The witch was right. "Well," she began with a weak grin, "I do like your fashion here a lot. Fusion of the medieval and the modern." She tried to giggle but it sounded more like a whimper.

Hermione cocked and eyebrow. "Madam Malkin's," she said uneasily. Seeing Alice's deteriorating emotional state, she pressed some sort of magical intercom and said, "Can we please have an escort? And perhaps a counsellor of some sort?"


	5. Kicking Ass

Chapter 5

The flames of the vampire's corpse were beginning to deaden and Bella was getting restless. In the time she spent warming her freezing skin by the fire of her conquest she could have killed two more evil leeches. Yet the sort of odd companionship and normalcy she felt in sharing the moment with Mike, the boy who courted her in high school, and Jake, who was for all intents and purposes her only friend left on the face of the Earth, was too enticing to reject despite her thirst for vengeance.

The only sounds her sensitive ears heard were the rain pouring around them, the thunder rumbling above them, the growls of the cars down the street, and perhaps some slight scampering from the cats who they displaced in their battle. So all in all, it was quiet-too quiet.

Suddenly, Mike's round face did a sort of spasm but recovered quickly. He began to speak in an incredibly low voice. "Bella and Indian Werewolf Kid-we need to get out of here. Now."

As "Indian Werewolf Kid" said, "My name's Jacob," Bella whipped her head around, scanning the skyline. Above them on the skyscraper, she could make out a very dim outline of a man, his arm outstretched. His scent was hard to catch in the rain, but she could slightly whiff human blood. She wondered what this meant-despite her many talents, the power of deduction had never come easily to her.

"Bella," Mike spoke in a dangerously low voice, "take my arm." Bella hesitated. She didn't know if she could trust Mike yet-who knew what he could do with his magic? She sensed another silhouette appear on the building surrounding them, another human heartbeat pounding slowly and determinedly through the pounding of the rain.

She felt Mike's heartbeat spike to an extraordinary level, and he shouted, "BELLA, WE HAVE TO LEAVE NOW!" Suddenly an agile woman jumped out of the shadows of the alley, wand held aloft. She sent red sparks flying in the sky as Bella dove for Mike's arm. Mike kept turning on the spot to no avail. He only had time to swear under his breath as a jet of green light soared towards them. He pounced on Bella, throwing her out of the way. Jacob split to the other side, shaking violently as he fluidly morphed into a wolf, the remains of his clothing exploding around him.

She took in the situation. One woman. Two men. All armed with wands. They didn't leave any time for speech making, which Bella found distinctly un-literary of them, but she wasn't going to complain. The less they talked, the more time she had to obliterate them.

Mike immediately jumped away from Bella and send a jet of red light from his wand towards one of the men. As if an invisible wall had appeared, the jet bounced back towards Mike, and he flew backwards in the alleyway into a pile of rubbish.

Meanwhile the woman bore down on Bella, sending various jets of light that kept Bella on the defense. She saw the woman slash her wand in the air, and Bella dodged each flash deftly until one of the invisible slashes connected and she felt a ripping pain sear her right arm. She heard the loud thud beside her and gathered she had just lost an arm. With little time to think, she dove for the arm, as good a weapon as any, and when she rolled to look upwards, the woman was practically on top of her, shooting a green bolt of lightning her way. Instinctively, Bella rolled out of the way, gathered momentum, and swung her severed right arm with her left arm like a baseball bat, whacking the woman across the temple. The woman collapsed and didn't stir.

Bella quickly assessed the situation. Mike was still engaged with one of the men, their wandlight flashing and exchanging as if they were practicing fencing with glowsticks. Jacob, however, was not faring very well. He had a large, bleeding gash around his ribcage and a terrible limp, but he had disabled his attacker's dominant hand using his powerful, razor-sharp teeth. The dark wizard was now trying to conjure up fresh tortures with his left hand, but the curses did not have the same intensity.

Suddenly, from behind Bella, she heard a roar of pain. Mike was suspended in the air, his body contorted, screaming as if all of his organs were aflame. The burly attacker was laughing contemptuously as Mike screamed. Remembering Jane, Bella expanded her mind shield over to Mike. He fell to the ground and ceased screaming. In the brief moments when the burly wizard attempted to repeat the curse, screaming the incantation over again to no effect, Mike snapped out his wand and the attacker fell still and toppled to the ground like a stiff board.

The final attacker sensed the commotion, and sent green sparks up into the air, risking a slash from Jacob's claws in the process. He fell to the ground, but Mike heard cracking all around him as several more attackers materialized into thin air. Realizing his window of opportunity was closing, he dove at Bella, flew over to Jacob and gripped him by a tuft of hair, and disapparated to the first place that came to mind.

The three landed hard on a sidewalk in suburban Forks. Bella swiftly recovered herself and hopped to her feet, only to find herself in front of her father's house. She saw her old red truck in the driveway and felt as if she had stepped into some other reality.

"What the fluffy kittens just happened, Mike?" she screeched.

"Get in the house now! We ought to be safe here," he said in a tone of forced calm. He began to move his wand in graceful arcs, and translucent barriers seemed to shimmer briefly over her old house. She debated demanding an explanation, but when she saw poor Jacob, clearly losing a lot of blood in his human form, she decided her first priority was making sure her companion did not die.

She practically dragged him up the driveway to the front door. She rang the doorbell several times to no avail. "Dad?" she called, but he didn't hear her. An impolite peek through the window next to the door exposed him and a few other men, watching an impossibly loud baseball game on television. Enough with this crap. She gently placed Jacob down on the steps, told the approaching Mike to stand back, and with a well placed karate kick, the front door was blasted off the hinges and flew into the staircase at the other side of the foyer. As she, Jacob, and Mike limped into the living room, every single eye was on them.

An aghast Charlie saw his daughter maimed with her left arm holding her detached right arm, Jacob copiously bleeding on the carpet, and Mike Newton covered in trash and holding an unnaturally glowing stick aloft. Eventually, Bella broke the men's silence.

"Hi, Dad. I'm home."


	6. Get a Clue

Chapter 6

"B-Bella! Honey!" Charlie began awkwardly. "Have you... erm... lost weight? Your pregnancy hasn't shown at all!"

This was apparently the exact wrong thing to say. Bella's face darkened and she growled, "Is that _all_ you have to say to me? I don't contact you for months on end, I fight in the bloodiest vampire war since the 1800s, and I come home missing an arm, and THAT IS ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY TO ME! AAAARRRGH!" In her anger she threw her detatched arm with such a force in punched a hole in the adjacent wall.

"You know what, Char-Dad? Screw it, I've been calling you Charlie behind your back my whole life and it's time to cut the crap! Look, _Charlie_, all my life I've had to freaking raise you and Mom like _I _was the adult, like _I_ was the parent! I leave Mom only because she got a babysitter of a husband, expect to come here and actually receive some parental attention and then I find out you've been eating POP TARTS for dinner for the past ten years like a child and oh, guess what, looks like _Bella_ has to do the cooking!

"But that's just how it is for you, isn't it? You can't handle the responsibility of being a parent so you just mope and go fishing and watch baseball while I take care of myself! And all your grumbling about Edward-why do you THINK I leaned on a man to take care of me when I NEVER had a father throughout my childhood! If you had even cared to _supervise_ me the level of a sixteen year old babysitter would have by maybe, I don't know, _checking on me_ once in a while you'd know that EDWARD HAD BEEN SHARING A BED WITH ME FOR THE PAST TWO YEARS IN THIS HOUSE! BUT YOU DIDN'T EVEN CARE ENOUGH TO LOOK, CHARLIE!"

She heaved and Charlie was poised to say something marginally reassuring, but Bella continued in a dangerous tone, "Well guess what, I'm a vampire vigilante now that stalks the night protecting ordinary civilians going about their daily lives. And these days you can't take care of me anymore. But could you care? COULD YOU AT LEAST CARE when I come home with missing apendages instead of trying to play some idiotic game and pass of any sort of parental responsibility? I WATCHED MY DAUGHTER BE RIPPED TO PIECES BY A DEMONIC VAMPIRE AND IT NEARLY KILLED ME! WHAT WOULD YOU DO, CHARLIE? WOULD YOU AVENGE HER DEATH BY TAKING DOWN ALL THE REMAINING DEMONIC VAMPIRES IN THE WORLD OR _WOULD YOU WATCH AN EFFING BASEBALL GAME?_"

Charlie did not know how to respond to that, so he just stared as Bella shouted orders at her companions. "MIKE! Go upstairs and take a shower! You smell like rotting fish! I'll clean out Jacob's wound. Charlie, get me some duct tape! Move it, people!"

Mike ran upstairs and did as he was ordered. He knew better than to argue with a raging vampire. Bella knew Jacob would heal quickly on his own but the last thing he needed was getting some rubbish caught in the wound and get sick off of that. She lifted him onto the kitchen table and carefully washed out his leg and side wounds with soapy water. Jacob winced slightly as she dabbed on rubbing alcohol and examined the wound. It looked clean enough. As cool as it would have been to watch his muscle fibers stich themselves back together in front of her eyes, Bella ran upstairs, burst into the bathroom for some gauze and tape (poor Mike squealed in embarassment), and carefully covered Jacob's wounds. She stole some clothes from her father-just basic cargo shorts and a "Werewolves in London" t-shirt (Bella appreciated irony)-and ordered Jacob to dress himself and then clean his blood off the table. He blushingly obliged.

Now there was the problem with her arm. She fetched her arm from its hole in the foyer and wiped away all the little pieces of drywall sticking to the crystallized stub. Using her extra sharp vampire vision, she perfectly reset the bone and balanced the incapacitated arm against her knee. She wound silver duct tape around the wound, securing it back into place perfectly. Bella wiggled her fingers. They were a little stiff but it would naturally take a while for her arm to completely reattach itself.

Mike had already returned downstairs in cleaner versions of the vampire hunting clothes he had worn earlier and was chatting with Charlie. Charlie appeared to return to fighting for a degree of normalcy. "We were wondering when you'd show up, Mike," he said. "You nearly never miss Clue Saturdays."

"My bad, Mr. S. It's just, we ran into a bit of trouble before I could get here," Mike replied, examining how every boy in the room was still staring open mouthed. "Oh, ought to take care of this," he grumbled, and obliviated them all. They looked at each other and returned to the television.

"At least Bella can join us this time!" piped Jacob weakly.

Bella had calmed slightly. "Join you in what?" she grumbled.

"Clue Saturdays!" Jacob exclaimed as if she were asking what her own first name was.

Mike explained, "All of us guys you rejected in high school hang out at your dad's house Saturday night and play Clue. It all started when Tyler," he nodded to Tyler who nodded back, "came over here to pick you up for prom and you had already left with Edward. And then Eric came over because his date stood him up and he was wondering if you were still here," Eric smiled and snorted a giggle, "and one Saturday I came over to see what you were doing and they were playing Clue, so I joined in."

"I showed up the week after I tattled on you about the motorcycles," explained Jacob. "I was sullen about it, and wanted to see you, but you were gone with Edward, and to calm me down, your dad invited me to play Clue with them."

Bella had seen a lot of bizarre things in her time with the Cullens, but a Clue-playing reject club was probably one of the oddest. "Fine. I'm game."

They had the Clue board set out on an ottoman and they all gathered around. Mike explained to Bella the usual procedure. "See, Mr. Swan is always Colonel Mustard, I'm Mr. Green, Tyler is Professor Plum, Jacob is Mrs. White, and Eric is Miss Scarlet. So that leaves you with Mrs. Peacock."

Bella scoffed. "But that's not fair! I don't wanna be Mrs. Peacock! _I'm_ always Miss Scarlet!"

Eric sniffed. "I'm Miss Scarlet! I like her silky hair!"

"But you're not even a girl!" whined Bella.

"Just take Mrs. Peacock," said Charlie gruffly. "Maybe I would have been a more concerned parent if you didn't whine every time I try to help you!"

Bella let out a vampire growl, thoroughly freaking out all the boys. She slammed Mrs. Peacock down on the board, upsetting some of the other characters. From holding the little piece so tightly between her thumb and forefinger, however, she created a large groove in the figure right in the middle.

Tyler snorted laughter. "Mrs. Peacock's pregnant!"

Bella was enraged. "YOU THINK YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT PREGNANCY DO YOU TYLER!" She flipped the board in the air, pieces scattering all over the place. Tyler cowered back in shock.

From hunting vampires for most of his adolescence, Mike knew how terrible their mood swings could be. When someone is transformed into a vampire, everything about that person is magnified-their personality, their physicality, and, of course, their emotions.

"Maybe this isn't the best night, fellas," he said softly. The Eric and Tyler didn't need to be told twice, and bid Bella, Mike, Jacob and Charlie goodbye as they sped out the door to their cars. Mike smiled. He hated missing Clue night, but he had some serious strategizing to do, and he needed the muggles gone to do it.

/

Author's Note: Okay, you guys, I _know_ Mr. Swan didn't strictly know that Bella was preggers; Bella and Edward said it was his niece. But come on guys. Charlie's a cop. He knows what's up, namely, that when his daughter gets married very young in a major hurry and then, surprise, there's a child that looks just like her and her husband... well anyway. It has also come to my attention that I have the dates kind of messed up but just ignore that, they're not super important anyway.


	7. DCA

Chapter 7

Alice sat uncomfortably in the basement community center of a church in Diagon Alley. Her plastic fold out chair was one of six in a circle headed by Susan, the session leader. On the tables on the side lay various snacks (of course, the assortment of chips and dips did not appeal to Alice's blood thirst) and a few stacks of pamphlets: _Out of the Shadows: Everyday Life as a Vampire_, _So You're a Dark Creature, Now What?_, _Coping with Transformation_, _Simple Potions to Improve Werewolf Lifestyle_, etc. Weekly meetings of Dark Creatures Anonymous was not, perhaps, what Hermione Weasley implied while requesting a conselor for Alice; she would have done much better with grief counseling, but public services took one look at Alice's pale skin and racially profiled her into some sort of coping group for new vampires and werewolves. Typical.

Those surrounding Alice were just as quiet and awkward as Alice herself. There was a blond, sulky vampire who strongly struck Alice as a male Rosalie; a blonde girl who would have been pretty but for the large scars running the length of her face, down her neck, and disappearing into the neckline of her shirt; a stunningly beautiful silvery haired woman; and finally the counselor herself.

The counselor cleared her throat and began, "Would we like to begin introductions? Okay then. My name is Susan. I'm a human witch. I've been a counselor for five years."

Everyone murmured hello. The sulky one went next. "Hi. I'm Zack. I'm a vampire and a wizard. I've been a vampire for two weeks. The last time I tasted human blood was... this morning." Alice could tell he was newborn. There was a hungry look in his eyes, his subtle calculations of how long it would take to kill all witnesses and drink their blood. But he wouldn't do it; she could tell he was far more scared than his victims, like a tiny spider threatening a human.

The pretty, scarred girl spoke up. "I'm Lavender. I've been a werewolf for more than... 9 years now I suppose. I don't eat people," she added spitefully. "I am civilized enough to keep up with my Wolfsbane potion."

"Hello, my name is Helda, and I am a veela. I have never been human, this is my race, but I killed a man two years ago in a rage and now the government says I must attend classes to integrate into society," she spoke in a highly restrained voice, her accent vaguely German.

Alice was pondering her comrades when she realized they were waiting for her to answer. "Oh, hi. I'm Alice Cullen. Vampire for, like, 90 ish years? I'm a vegetarian." She figured this would be enough to satiate them.

"Well you seem to have your life quite in handle, don't you, Alice?" remarked an impressed Susan. "I wonder why you saw it necessary to come to this meeting! You're welcome, of course, but usually our attendees have serious issues dealing with their lives as dark creatures."

Alice simply smiled politely and thanked her.

Soon as they began, Susan coaxed Zack into a lengthy discussion of his most recent lapse into barbarism. Alice was all too familiar with the account; she, like any other vampire, could recall the difficulty of the first few years of life as a vampire, and she felt an undeniable companionship with the fellow. But just as he was reaching some sort of fluency in retelling his struggles without Susan's badgering, Alice felt herself ripped forcibly away from the scene into the recesses of her mind, overcome by a vision.

It was some sort of a dark room. She was frustrated at the lack of specificity in her vision and she groped with her mind for some illumination. It was sharpening-some kind of bars appeared around the field of view, stone floors and walls-she needed a pad of paper, something to record this vision on-she heard a distant roar-was it an animal? the wind? an aeroplane?

Abruptly the vision faded. She was no longer in the loud, dank place. Concerned faces of her fellow conselees replaced the iron bars in her vision. The distant roar dulled and disappeared. She was back in the Dark Creatures Anonymous meeting.

"Alice, Alice, are you alright?" panted Susan.

"I'm fine!" Alice replied breathlessly. "By the way I'm psychic!"

Most of the group seemed deeply confused at her response, but for the first time in the meeting, Lavender lit up. "You mean to say you're a seer?"

"Yeah, I guess," Alice said.

"Do you see doom and destruction of all those around you?"

Alice felt disturbed at the girl's turn of mind and replied, "Occasionally. Sort of. I saw my friend jump off a cliff, killed by an evil vampire, et cetera. But I see less morbid stuff sometimes too!"

This didn't impress Lavender. "Well, can you see specific people and what'll happen to them? Like me?"

"Most people. But not werewolves."

Lavender frowned and withdrew again.

"Well, it looks like the time is up! See you all next week," Susan said quickly, ending the meeting before anyone else collapsed on the floor.

Alice hoped to sneak back to her quarters in Diagon Alley quietly, but Lavender fell into step with her. They walked down the street side by side.

"So what did you see?" she asked.

Alice had no wish to confide in the girl, but she didn't have anyone else anymore. She sighed. "I'm not sure. It was some sort of room with bars. I heard a roar in the distance."

"Bars... like a jail or a zoo or something?" Lavender asked. "What does it mean?"

"It means that some sort of room with bars is soon going to become very important," Alice replied.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know, my visions are obnoxiously vague at first and soon come to clarity. It's like they're specifically timed to build suspence."

Lavender pondered this information but decided she couldn't apply it at all at the moment. "So where are you staying?"

"Inn at the Leaky Cauldron."

"Could you use a room mate?"

Alice couldn't help but admire Lavender's forwardness, even if her blood smelled like wet dog. "Well sure. I do have a couch and not enough money in my stipend to room myself."

Lavender grinned. "Thank you. I've been imposing on a friend for far too long... she's got kids now and I know she's nervous about having someone with my-oooooh! Look at the detail on the bodice! And it's the perfect shade of blue!" She swept a pale blue gown from a rack in front of the robes shop.

Alice had to agree, that beading was pristine. And maybe retail therapy could quell her nerves about her family, at least for a few hours. She hesistated, debating whether sulking in her room for a third day in a row would be a better effigy for Jasper than wearing a dress she _knew_ he would love to see on her. Swallowing her doubts, a bit of her old excitement seeped into her voice when she said, "Let's go find a changing room."


	8. The Secret Meeting

Oh my goodness, you guys! I literally just realized that I missed an update yesterday! So without further ado, please enjoy chapter 8.

/

Chapter 8

Mike Newton, Jacob Black, and Bella Cullen were holed up in Charlie's basement. Mike placed the strongest protective charms on it he could so they could use it as a base. Charlie wasn't particularly thrilled with keeping a secret organization in the house, but Bella's criticism had sunk in that evening and he figured that if his apparently vampire daughter was going to risk her life nightly to save the people of Olympia then the least he could do is give her and her friends a place to stay. Also, Mike turned out to be fairly adept at magically modifying his spaghetti to make it less lumpy, which was fortunate for everyone's tastebuds (though Bella preferred uncooked steak).

Tonight, Charlie and Billy were upstairs watching tv loudly as a cover. Downstairs the trio was joined by one of Mike's contacts-he was tall, blonde, fairly burly wizard who looked at everyone but Mike with uncomfortable distrust. He did not appear eager to introduce himself at any point so Mike did so for him.

"Bella, Jacob, this is Tim Kirk. Works as an Auror by day... helps me out by night," Mike explained.

"Hold on," said Bella, not catching Mike's implication, "You said Aurors hunt down dark wizards... and so do you... so why does he have to help you by night?"

"Because of this," Mike replied, tossing Bella a clipping from a yellowing newspaper article.

_SUPPOSED VAMPIRE WAR A HOAX, SEC. SCOTT REASSURES PUBLIC by M. Edgecombe, via Associated Press. FORKS, W.A.-American Secretary of Magic Bruce Scott responds to international speculation as to a massive vampire war taking place near Forks, Washington, USA by dismissing concerns as "overreation and fabrication." _

_Many in the magical community have claimed a massive war has taken place between a collalition of several international covens including vampires from the U.S., Ireland, and Romania and the Italian coven known widely as the "Volturi", recognized by most vampires as the royalty of their kind. These speculators have pointed to a spike in human and vampire deaths in Washington and massive fires in the woods at the supposed time of the battle as evidence of a bloody war in which there were no survivors. _

_Scott, however, has confirmed that his Department of Magical Creatures investigated the disturbance in the northwest and concluded that no such war has taken place, that the fires supposedly stinking of vampires were but a fairly common and natural wildfire started by human campers, and that reports of human deaths are greatly overestimated and show no evidence of vampirism._

_Reports have also circulated that the alleged vampire attacks in Washington may be part of a larger conspiracy involving various other dark creatures and dark wizards. Scott pointed out that "there is absolutely no evidence to support such a claim" and confirmed that he would not send a team of Aurors to look into the situation, despite local calls for such an action._

_Scott's decision has drawn international criticism from foreign ministers claiming his Dept. Magical Creatures' research was faulty and that despite the factuality of the war, vampire violence has increased worldwide, and especially in the Forks area. British Head of Dept. Magical Creatures Hermione Weasley, most famous for her crackdown on house elf regulation violations, said last week CONTINUED ON D5, "VAMPIRES"_

"D5? The style section?" Bella asked.

"Apparently, the American wizarding community does not find this alarming news-or the authorities don't want them to," said Mike.

"Most of us in the Auror department, at least in the west coast area, don't buy it. As you know, violence has only increased in the Seattle area," spoke Tim for the first time. "And those of us with balls have taken action when the Dept. of Magic has failed."

"And after seeing you kick both vampire and wizard butt in that alleyway, you and Jake may be the exact people our cause needs to bring down this conspiracy," Mike said. Tim scoffed, however, at his trust in Bella and Jake. Bella scowled back at him fearsomely.

Jake snorted. "So you _actually_ believe there's some sort of grand conspiracy going on with dark wizards and dark vampires and dark werewolves and crap?"

"Well, we haven't heard of any dark werewolves yet, but it's a possiblity," said Mike. "And after that encounter in the alleyway, it seems the conspiracy knows we're on to them."

Tim expanded, "With the Volturi gone, there's a power vacuum in the vampire world. It makes sense that if there's some power-hungry individual or group, this crises would provide them with the opportunity they need to take over. We are furthermore absolutely sure there's wizard involvement-fragments left over from the Great War ten years ago, looking for a new way to seize power-imagine having hoardes of evil vampires at their command. It would be a huge advantage at both psycologically creating panic to take over and at physically overpowering resistence."

"Are you just here to make speeches, Tim?" Bella asked icily. "Or do you have some other purpose?"

"I'm here to evaluate you all as to trustworthiness," he replied. "The werewolf's fine. You, however, are too powerful at occlumency for me to tell."

"Occlumency?"

"Lift your mental shield, Bella," Mike explained.

Bella had no wish to do so. She didn't know if she could trust him herself. "I can hunt vampires alone. I don't need you invading my brain."

"Bella, we need you. Don't you want to avenge your daughter?" begged Mike. It reminded her very strongly of how he attempted to coerce her into movie dates. "We have the resources to fight evil effectively instead of just picking off one vampire at a time out of millions in the world."

It was tempting. She sucked it up and raised her mental shield momentarily.

Tim pondered this to himself for far too long for Bella's taste. "She's certainly well-intentioned. But keep an eye on her rage," he added spitefully. She hissed at him. Mike grinned.

"So do we get to go kill some bloodsuckers now?" said Jacob, breaking the silence.

Tim Kirk responded by tossing the trio a manilla envelope. "By the way, Mike, you're promoted. Good recruiting," Tim added as he jogged up the stairs to the basement, broomstick in tow.

"Thanks, Kirk!" Mike called, opening the envelope. He scanned the documents and his grin took on a devious quirk. "Grab your toothbrushes. We're heading to the Magic Department in D.C."


	9. Escape and Plan

Chapter 9

Mike began rummaging around the basement, tossing a number of items in the beat up backpack he always wore to school. Instead of holding algebra books, it now held sneakoscopes, Peruvian instant darkness powder, and shatterproof flasks of potions, among other helpful magical items.

"What? Why are we going there?" asked Bella. "We haven't even taken out all the Seattle vampires yet!"

"We're going to straight to the U.S. Magic Department in the capitol. Attacking the roots instead of the symptoms," he said as he shoved a book entitled _Poisons and their Antidotes_ in his stuffed backpack.

"Well what does that entail?" she pressed, her deductive powers once again showing their weakness.

"It means we're going after the bloodsuckers with power, not just the cronies in Seattle," Jacob explained grinning. "As long as I get to fight, I'm at your service, Mike."

"Sort of. This is a reconaissance mission. We think Secretary of Magic Scott is dealing with this... this evil conspiracy. The plan is to break into his offices and steal any information he has about his dealings with vampires. If we're right, and he is double dealing the wizarding world, then we may be able to discover this evil conspiracy's plans."

"And how are we supposed to do that?" Bella grumbled. "Slaughter everyone in our way?"

"Hopefully it won't come to that. The Department is particularly well guarded with Aurors and Security Agents willing to defend the Minister's secrets. _But_ if we get them reasonably distracted, we may not have to slaughter them at all."

"And how would we do that?" Jacob asked. "Challenge them to a game of Clue?"

"I call Miss Scarlet!" Bella piped up.

"Don't be obtuse!" Mike snapped. "If you _had_ turned to page D5 in the Style Section of the paper, you would have read that to win the international community onto his side, Scott is hosting a gala in two days time and inviting the Ministers of Magic, Head Aurors, and Head of International Magic Cooperation Departsments from around the world. Supposedly throwing this big party and showing off the American Department will convince the magical government officials from around the world that he has control of the vampire situation here.

"But that's just the source for the distraction. Kirk was looking for a diverse team like us to be able to accomplish the real mission. The Magic Department is located underneath the Capitol Building in D.C. Officials will come into an undisclosed location via portkey and then be escorted into the tunnels underground leading to the Department, where the gala will be held. Kirk has provided us with the location in our packet here where the officials will portkey into. Contacts in Britain are planning on delaying a few of the guests to make them easier targets. We'll jump them, disguise ourselves as them, and make it into the Department. The rest is up to us."

Bella and Jacob were contemplating silently when suddenly above them they heard a large boom that shook the foundations of the house. Bella didn't hesitate and flew up the stairs. "CHARLIE! Billy!" she cried. They were fine, huddling in the living room behind the couch, next to the tall bookcase. The TV had fallen off the stand and the glass shattered. Then the second boom came. A bookcase toppled and Bella dove, holding the bookcase off her father and his friend by inches. Books fell regardless and Charlie struggled to lift Billy away and into his wheelchair.

"CHARLIE! What's going on?" cried Bella.

"I know as much as you do, Bella!" he grunted. Another bang and sizzle. Mike and Jacob were up the stairs now. Mike peered out the curtains and a beam of light sailed through, shattering the glass as he ducked in the nick of time.

"Those guys from the alley found us. Mr. S, you were the secret keeper! You didn't tell anyone but Billy, did you?" Mike called over the attacks.

Charlie contemplated. "I think I told Renee."

"On the phone?"

"On her Facebook wall," replied Charlie.

"Honestly, Charlie, what is wrong with you?" groaned Bella, throwing the bookshelf to the ground.

"Dad, Mr. Swan, you need to get to La Push," said Jacob in a tone of forced calm. "Can you get them there, Mike?"

Mike grimaced and picked up Bella's old copy of _Wuthering Heights_, which had fallen from the bookshelf. "_Portus_. There. You have 2 minutes to get everything you need and then both of you hold on to this book and it should take you to the beach at the reservation where we went surfing a few years ago." He turned to his companions. "I'm going to take off the protective enchantments. As soon as the enchantments break, they'll be coming, and we're apparating out of here."

Mike started murmuring incantations and the attacks became more violent. Bella had to duck behind the sofa twice due to stray spells. With a flash of light, Charlie and Billy departed. "Ready?" asked Mike. Bella grabbed his arm. Right as the front of her house blew to pieces, she was sucked into the void.

When she could breathe again, they were all in a house she didn't recognize. It wasn't as homey as Charlie's dwelling, but it looked like she had stepped into a Pier 1 catalog, complete with the gently wafting scent of potpourri.

"Mike?" inquired a middle aged blond woman as she edged into the polished living room. "Sweetie, I haven't seen you in ages! Are you okay?" Bella recognized her as Mrs. Newton from her brief stint at the sports goods store the Newtons owned.

"I don't have much time, Mom, I'm on a mission!" he complained as she pulled him into a tight hug. He pulled away and dashed up the stairs as his mother "tsked."

It was then she recognized Bella. "Bella? Bella Swan?"

Bella halfheartedly smiled. "Hi, Mrs. Newton."

She gasped. "MICHAEL NEWTON!" she screamed up the stairs. "DID YOU GET BELLA IN TROUBLE WITH YOUR VAMPIRES YOU KEEP CHASING AROUND? I TOLD YOU YOU'RE ENDANGERING YOUR FAMILY, YOUR FRIENDS, AND OUR WHOLE LOVING TOWN!"

"She got herself in trouble with vampires!" he called as he ran downstairs, his backpack slightly more robust. "I'm not her babysitter!"

Mrs. Newton positively growled. "He could've gotten a job as an Arithmancer in the big bank in Seattle, you know! But _no_, he had to continue chasing around some silly vampire dark magic mumbo jumbo conspiracy and get everyone killed or... or _changed_, you poor dear."

Bella was insulted, and complained that she _chose_ to be a vampire, but the effect was lost because at the same time, Jacob was complaining about being completely ignored, as usual, and "what was the point of being a hunky, 6'5" werewolf with beautiful long hair if people treated you like chopped liver in the face of a shiny vampire?"

Mike ignored all three of the complainers. "Sure, whatever, Mom. By the way we're being hunted by some unknown group of wizards that want to kill us, so if they come knocking just get out of the way. I'll be in Washington, D.C. at the Magic Department."

"Well at least call some time, Michael!"

"Sure," he promised, though he was unlikely to fulfill it. He grabbed Bella and Jacob's hands and again disapparated. When Bella opened her eyes, it was no longer rainy or tense-before her lay the iconic Capitol Building, shining in the reflecting pool by the moonlight. On the lawn, a group of scruffy protesters had set up camp.

"Let's join them! Camping is something I _own_ at," Jacob said enthusiastically.

"It'll give us the time to plan that we lost in the attack on Bella's house," Mike replied. He put on the cheery, "popular-kid" persona he had adopted at muggle high school to approach the campers. The most visible signs, posted like a picket fence around their campsite, seemingly said "Beer for our soldiers."

"Hey, bro," said Mike to one of the protesters. He was probably like 25 and sported a luscious beard. "I totally agree. If someone's old enough to go to war, he's old enough to drink a beer."

The man blinked at him incomprehensibly. "_Beards_ for our soldiers, man. Not _beer_. The shaving policy of the military is totally discriminatory. Bearded men have just as much a right to serve for their country as shaven men."

"Of course, I totally feel you, man," Mike corrected lamely. The man grunted and welcomed him into the campsite.

"That was _incredibly _smooth, Marshmallow" Jacob said sarcastically.

"Shut up," said Mike. "We're here aren't we?" He unstrapped a compressed tent from his backpack and enlisted his friends in popping up the tent. The tent was larger on the inside than on the outside and was decked out like a miniature apartment.

Bella's eyes bulged in shock. "I guess you kept these in the back of the storeroom." He didn't laugh. Maybe Mike was much cooler than expected, but his sense of humor was still definitely out of touch with hers. Then again, Bella wasn't well known for being very funny.

"Mind taking first watch?" asked Mike.

"I'll take all of the watches," she replied. "Not having to sleep has some benefits."

Jacob and Mike soon knocked off in the tent, leaving Bella to contemplate whether her father was okay, whether her house was still standing, and how they were supposed to take down Secretary Scott.

Five minutes later she sighed. She got nothing.

/**

Hello, all! Happy Lent, if you believe in that sort of thing, and if not, then happy Thursday. Thank you to my loyal reviewer, NaomiTrekkie, you're all kinds of awesome. (Thanks to Hufflepuff's friend, as well; your advice is appreciated!) I'm getting quite a few hits but not many reviews, so hopefully you guys are enjoying this, but if you wanted to write in a few lines of your opinions, it would be much appreciated. I currently have a bit of writer's block on this story, but not to fear, I'm stuck on Chapter 20, so we have quite a bit of leeway. Adeiu!

**/


	10. Crucio

Chapter 10

"It's useless, Jess. The trail's dead, and they're not talking," said yet another hunk of meat crony.

Jessica scowled from the rocking chair in the Newtons' living room. "I'm tired of looking like an idiot because of Bella and Mike and that... Indian Werewolf Kid, whatever his name is. Use an unforgivable if you have to."

"They can track the use of those," complained the crony. "Do you want to give us away?"

"Trust me, Bob, no one in the governmet will care if they register a stray curse in Forks. And if those three get away again, especially if they're on to bigger things than mere vamp hunting in Seattle like we suspect, _you'll_ be the one on the bad end of an unforgivable."

He seemed hesistant. She snorted. It was always poor Jess who had to get things done. First it was Forks High Student Council. Now it's the International Dark Alliance. She approached Mrs. Newton, who was tied up in the formerly pristine kitchen as they ramsacked her house in search of clues as to her son's location. "Hi, Mrs. N. You know, I found those prom photos you posted on Facebook super unflattering."

"What is it? What do you want? I'll untag them!"

"Well, without giving away too much, I would like a gold star from my superiors, personal revenge, and the opportunity to personally kill your son. Mind telling me where he ran off to?"

Mrs. Newton did not dignify this with a response.

"Or you can make this difficult for yourself. _Crucio!_"

Bob refused to look and instead sat in the trashed living room in the one chair that was still standing. He tried to ignore the whimpers from the kitchen. For a volunteer with a flair for the dark arts, he had litte stomach for the unforgivable curses. He did not want to admit he'd never been able to successfully crucio someone. Ten minutes later, Jess retreated from the kitchen.

"She's not talking," Jessica sighed. "But it's okay. Mr. N. won't be coming home any time soon. We have all night."


	11. Magic Department by Day

Chapter 11

Bella, Mike, and Jacob navigated the tunnels underneath the Capitol Building deftly exiting off the passageway generally crowded by Congressional pages in order to enter the tunnel, stuffed with queer people in wizarding robes, that led off to the underground Magic Department headquarters. They were surveying the area, trying to come up with a way to infiltrate the Department and complete their mission of discovering Secretary Scott's plans involving the vampire problem. Climbing down two twisting staircases led them to a grand entrance tunnel, similar to those in football stadiums, ending in a security checkpoint that registered all the visitors and employees there. That let way to a neoclassically styled lobby with marble floors and wide open congregating spaces. Spiraling staircases lined the three other walls and led to every department imaginable which clustered around the main lobby area underground.

Mike pointed up to the security checkpoint in front of him. "Secrecy sensors. You walk through there and all forms of concealment are erased. Polyjuice potion, disillusionment charms, everything." Bella and Jacob didn't know what those were yet, but figured it kept them from making any stealthy entrance. Highly inconvenient. Mike gestured towards a machine next to the sensor. "That's for weighing wands. It registers who's here and who's armed. You won't need it, obviously."

Mike explained when they reached the sensor that their business was registering his cousin as a werewolf, and an unhappy guard handed them over badges and let them walk through. "Lame excuse," Mike muttered to Jake, "but I needed to get us inside. And it's better than revealing a contact."

Bella scanned the ornate signs above each staircase passageway and found one labeled "Administration." She nodded towards it and Mike and Jacob followed her towards the staircase. It appeared to curve upwards, but as they made progress, Bella noticed it meandered sideways and downward as well, though some sort of charm on the stairs made them feel upright.

They broke into another lobby, though this one appeared less classy than the main entrance. A secretary sat behind a mahogany desk guarding the hallways to either side which led to apparently all high level officials' offices.

"Could you direct us to the minister's office?" said Jacob to the secretary quite unstealthily. Mike facepalmed.

"Why? Do you have an appointment?" She sounded rightfully skeptical.

"Um... no," said Jacob. "But I have a motorcycle!"

"Security!" called the secretary. Not a moment later the guards appeared to drag the trio out.

"That was quick," remarked Mike. "You guys have some tight drills."

The guard grunted. "We expected shenanigans with you youngsters. Every time Scott throws a party you all think you can run around like idiots. Now where are you off to?"

"Registering my cousin as a werewolf. We got a bit lost and decided to ask the secretary for help," Mike covered lamely.

"Department of Magical Creatures," he replied. The guards practically dragged Mike and Jacob down the stairs, to the entrance, and back towards the correct tunnel. It was then that Jacob looked around and noticed Bella was missing. He thought better of mentioning it aloud until he and Mike were climbing the staircase alone. "Have you seen Bella?"

"What about me?" Bella said, suddenly appearing behind them. They both jumped. "People underestimate the stealth of vampires. You know, their ceilings are fairly easy to climb on here. Minister's office is off to the right hallway, walk back to the very end and you reach a door with several windows. The blinds were drawn but there were no secrecy sensors."

The boys grinned. "So did _you _find out anything interesting, other than how awkward it is to get carried away like children by guards?" she remarked bitingly.

Mike and Jacob stuttered sheepishly. "We... we provided you the opportunity to discover the layout of the Administration office! That's something," Mike suggested. "Now... all we need is a plan, and I think I'm a _plan man_."

"Haha, rhyming!" remarked Bella sarcastically.

"Does the plan involve mindless slaughter of vampires?" Jacob said slowly.

Mike rolled his eyes. "It's more subtle than that. Bella, exactly how stealthy _are_ vampires?"

/**

Thanks for the reviews, **DreamerHorse**, **Cat**, and **Hufflepuff's Friend**! You guys are cool. I hope everyone's enjoying the story so far!

-Ravenclaw

**/


	12. Magic Department by Night Part I

Chapter 12

Bella, Mike, and Jacob lay in wait in the bushes edging an abandoned parking lot adjacent to the Capitol Building. According to Tim Kirk, portkeys arrived here with each attending Ministry's officials. An American security officer would escort them to the main tunnel that led to the main floor of the Magic Department where the gala was held.

The trio watched the Canadian officials arrive-it appeared to be the Minister and his wife, their Head of International Cooperation Department, and their Head Auror and her husband, along with numerous security officers. Too risky. French officials came and went, as did Mexican. Then the British came. Kingsley Shaklebolt, the Minister; Harry Potter, the Head Auror; Potter's wife; and a plethora of special security. They were missing the Head of International Cooperation and his wife. The three let out a collective sigh. Whatever odd Brit was working on the same side as them did their job.

In an hour, far after the rest of the dignitaries arrived, their patience was rewarded, and the final British visitor arrived with his wife and a lone security officer. They didn't know what hit them. Bella launched herself from the bush and knocked the three of them out almost instantly with well aimed blows to the temples. She piled them on her shoulders and dumped their bodies in the bushes. "Let's roll, boys." Mike plucked a hair from each and placed one in three separate flasks filled with highly unappetizing looking potion. With a swig, Mike became Percy Weasley, Jacob became his muggle wife, and Bella the manly security agent.

"Not fair! How come I have to be the girl?" Jacob squeaked in his high pitched voice.

Bella was too busy flexing her man muscles to notice Jacob's complaints. "Shall I escort you to the tunnel, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley?" she said, humored at her deep, accented voice.

"Stop screwing around!" commanded Mike. "This is enough Polyjuice Potion for 2 hours, nothing more, and that's for _humans_. I don't know about vampires or shapeshifters or whatever you are, Jake, I mean, er, Audrey." They stole the Brits' clothes and left them in their underwear, Bella stuffing all their supplies in Audrey's purse and handing it off to Jacob. They apparated straight to the tunnel open for the dignitaries. It was deserted except for the sensors at the end near a distant light and music pouring from the gala.

Bella took deep breaths, preparing herself for her task. "Okay, you all have to be silent and still. Don't even breathe." She ignored Jake muttering about how "not all of us have that luxury" and pulled them both up on her broad man shoulders like Edward used to do with her when they went running. Mike quickly placed a disillusionment charm on them for extra protection (though they did not need it with Bella's vampire stealth).

As she had discovered in her expeditions yesterday at the Secretary's office, the Popcorn Stucco ceilings in the tunnels and small offices were relatively easy to sink her vampire fingers into to get a good grip. Her fingers may look human now, but still had the diamond hardness of a vampire. She grinned, jumped, and stuck straight into the ceiling, climbing silently as a ninja above the observation of the sensors or guards. As she passed the security officer posted at the entrance, he balked slightly as if he sensed someone, but Bella expertly clung to the shadows and avoided observation. He soon ignored the disturbance and returned to his absorbing job of doing nothing.

Bella slid cautiously down the wall in complete silence. She crept to the shadowy, unlit corner behind the staircase to the Dept. of International Cooperation and released her companions. Mike took off the charm to make his appearance. "Remember, Bella, pilfer International, then Auror, and finally Administration. Anything relevant to vampire policy. Jacob and I stay ground level just in case things get messy."

Bella nodded, and the two left to chat it up with the other suited and gowned guests. She slipped silently up the staircase. A swift ripple of pain began to course its way through her, and she felt herself shrinking down to her regular size. Her body must have already started burning through the potion, and she worried for Jacob the same wouldn't happen to him.

By the time she reached the main, unlit office, she was most definitely herself again, drowning in men's clothing. She stripped down to the undershirt, ripped the pants to a reasonable length, and went barefoot. Unthinkingly she bundled up the clothes and stuffed them under a stair.

The lobby was similar to the administration offices. She thanked Edward's ghost that wizards were too technologically backwards to invest in security cameras and delicately creeped across the hallways to the back off the department where she expectedly found the Head's office. A well placed kick knocked the door open without blasting it off the hinges as at her father's house and she placed a foot inside. No alarms or hexes. She yanked open a few desk drawers. Next to no information. She found a curious file chronicling recent worldwide vampire unrest and departed with that, carefully closing the desks and door.

The Auror department was more complicated. As soon as she stepped foot in the main office, a sneakoscope began whirring. She unabashedly smashed it with her fist as soon as she could but she heard footsteps running her way. Aurors must have been working late. She slunk into the corner of the room until they came into the office.

Two men observed the broken sneakoscope but otherwise unharmed office. Seeing the door was straight broken, one of them started as if to call for backup, but as soon as he opened his mouth Bella pounced and delivered a blow to the chest knocking the air out of him. The second Auror drew his wand and shot out a purple light that struck Bella in the ribs. She stumbled backwards in pain and he threw a bolt of red light at her which she barely dodged. She grabbed the desk sign from the Auror's desk and threw it at her assailant's head. He hit the ground with a thud. Not an elegant attack, but sufficient. She was running out of time. Pilfering the desk was nearly fruitless. Memos on the Head Auror's pleas to intervene in Washington being shot down were all her findings. Not terribly useful, but she grabbed them anyway.

Bella stumbled down the stairs, her ribs still in terrible pain after the Auror's spell. She flew up the stairs to the Administration office. As soon as she stepped into the office, there were ten security officers waiting for her, wands drawn. This would be fun.

/**

Sorry for missing an update last week! I was on spring break, spending time with my family. Also, I am currently writing Chapter 22 and nearing the end, so updates should otherwise be regular up till completion. Thanks for reading!

**/


	13. Magic Department by Night Part II

Chapter 13

"Can I help you gentlemen? By help, of course, I mean decimate!" she quipped pathetically.

The officers all sent stunning spells towards Bella. Ignoring her complaining ribs, she jumped up into the air clear out of their heads and landed on a random man. A spell flew at her and she dove under the body, which absorbed the shock of the spells. She grabbed the man by the ankles and swung him around like a deadly version of the game children play with their parents, knocking down every person within a six foot radius. Four more men remained upright to charge her. She jumped for one who extended a shield charm; Bella hit the shield and flew across the room, crashing into the opposite wall and knocking a Bella sized hole in the drywall.

She rolled out of the way of a flashing curse and jumped to her feet. Her butt was sore from her collision with the wall and her chest pain was worsening. The next spell seemed to come in slow motion. Bella ducked, lunged, and summersaulted like a little bullet up to the attacker near the lobby desk. Her leg shot up, flinging the wand from the wizard's hand and crushing his bones in the process. Before he could fall back in shock, she knocked his legs out from under him and he thudded to the ground.

Three left, more probably coming. She jumped into the air as another spell flew towards her, her fingers sinking into the ceiling as before. She swung backwards as if on a monkeybar to gather momentum, and practically flew forward, knocking the wizard out with her force of impact. He flew backwards into one of his companions and the two hit the wall and sank to the ground. The last one did not have time to look surprised. She took him out classily with an iron elbow to the back.

Bella sprinted to the office at the back, threw her weight on the door, and crashed into the desk. Yanking open all the drawers in defiance of their feeble iron locks, she had little time to be selective and grabbed anything even slightly suspicious. A crash against the wall behind her and an explosion of glass of a diploma frame alerted her that there were more security guards in the room. Her arms were now full of files. She shifted half to one arm and half to her head. Before anyone could hit her she flipped Secretary Scott's desk up into the air with her free arm and it crashed into the middle of the crowd of agents. The resulting confusion allowed her to flee towards the stairs, either stealthing past stray agents or swiftly knocking them out. Reaching the stairs she lept up onto the handrailing and slid down at super speed towards the lobby.

The party was all chaos. Jacob, luckily, was still a female, though his skin was darkening from Audrey's pallor. The other British ministers did not seem too concerned with her appearance considering the streams of security trying to keep the place under control.

"Excuse me!" called the American Head Auror from a platform erected at the head of the room. The hired band cowered awkwardly behind him as he stole their microphone. "There seems to have been a security breech involving the British Secret Service Agent Charles Hathorne. Could his escorted officials please present themselves?"

Every eye turned to stare at Mike as Percy and Jacob as Audrey. "Erm, Hello?" said Mike awkwardly. "Is there an issue?" But before he could go any further, Jacob erupted in height and swiftly changed back to a tall American man wearing Audrey's curve hugging blue ballgown.

It took a second for the shock to register before people started screaming. Dignitaries from all over had their wands on Jacob in an instant. Mike grabbed his arm to disapparate, but someone hit him with an anti-apparition jinx befoe he could.

"Drop your wand, eh!" the Canadian Head Auror shouted.

Before Mike could contemplate the demand, Bella popped up behind her creepily, cried "Drop yourself," and proceeded to throw her violently into a crowd of dignitaries. She landed unceremoniously in Bruce Scott's lap.

The American Head Auror grabbed the microphone again. "We are officially in a state of emergency! Apparate to safety immediately! Guards, seize them!"

All hell broke loose. A thousand spells shot towards Bella, Jacob, and Mike.

"MIKE, GET US OUT OF HERE!" screeched Bella. He still couldn't apparate on his own. He lunged and ducked, avoiding spells the best he could, and seeing a few ladies attempting to apparate he jumped, and holding Jacob's wrist tightly with his left hand, he secured the hem of the woman's gown in his fingertips and was wrenched into apparating with her to safety.


	14. Cat Fight

Chapter 14

Ginny Potter shrieked as she found her living room filled with three unknown teenagers dressed in her brother's and sister in law's clothing. She drew her wand as Mike drew his and hit him with a stinging hex to the face. He fell to the ground. She turned to attack Bella but Bella grabbed her wand, wrenched it from her grap, and tightened her own fist around it. It crumbled to dust.

"Hey! That was my wand!" Ginny shouted.

"Yeah, and that was my friend's pretty face!" Bella replied, gesturing to Mike whose face began to blow up like a balloon.

"Who are you?" she shrieked again.

"Calm down, and we'll tell you!" Bella roared.

Jacob started laughing quite wildly. "Cat fight!"

"_You're_ one to tease, Jake," Bella growled. "That's a very fine evening gown you're wearing." Jacob pouted and pulled their original clothes out of Audrey's purse.

"Mind if we use your bathroom, ma'am?" Jacob asked.

"Yes, I do!"

"Thank you!" Jacob said and wandered down the hall.

"'Yes, I mind,' means, 'no, you can't!'" said Ginny angrily, but he was already changing out of the dress in the bathroom.

"We mean you no harm," Mike mumbled through his swollen face.

Ginny snorted. "Clearly, attacking and impersonating my family, infiltrating the American Ministry, and breaking into my house is certainly unharmful."

"Yes, yes it is," Mike replied. He sighed and began, "You may not believe this ma'am, but we three are part of a band of vampire hunters, on a quest to defeat the latest conspiracy threatening the stability of the magical world."

"You're right. I don't believe that."

"You don't have to believe us," Bella sneered. She hated this chick. "Just get out of the way." She roughly shoved Ginny out of the way, snatched the purse from Jacob as he left the bathroom, and went inside to return to her fitted jeans and t-shirt.

"Hurry up, Bella," Mike called. "I am very sorry to inconvenience you further, ma'am. We'll be on our way. Tell me, what is your name?"

Ginny regarded him suspiciously. "Ginny Potter. Don't gawk at me."

Mike couldn't do so for long, because Bella threw his clothes at his face and ordered him to get a move on himself. Mike changed and pulled a small pouch of floo powder from Audrey's purse. The purse was less manly than his backpack, but he had had to replace all his items in the purse for convenience. He walked over to their fireplace, lit it with his wand, and tossed in the powder. Bella, Jacob, and Mike all crammed into the fireplace, but Mike paused before shouting the direction.

"May I... may I have an autograph?" he asked Ginny feebly.

"No."

Mike sighed but called, "The Leaky Cauldron!" With that, they were gone.

/**

Here's a short chapter for you this week. Happy almost Easter!

**/


	15. A Confrontation

Chapter 15

Alice and Lavender were sitting at the bar, chatting amiably about boys and dresses and living life in the shadows of society in fear of injuring their loved ones. Several wizards offered to buy Alice a drink, and she kept politely turning them down. (Though if they were especially persistent, she asked them for a shot of blood, which usually made them hightail away from her).

Lavender ignored these distractions and continued in her rant thus: "...and then I was, like, totally in love with Seamus, but we broke it off when I almost killed him as a werewolf, so now he and my BFF are super committed to each other, and yes, I'm happy for them, but I'm beginning to wonder if I'm destined for a life of loneliness and-Oh! who's that, I wonder? He's kind of cute," she added in an undertone, nudging Alice on the arm.

Alice turned to the fireplace where Lav seemed to gesture to see, to her shock, her sister-in-law apparently alive and well, arms full of files and flanked on either side by Jacob Black and some blond kid with a horribly ugly face.

"Bella!" she exclaimed in her tinkling voice.

Bella's eyes popped open widely. "Alice? How..."

"How are you alive?" Alice cut in. "Where's Edward? And Carlisle? And-"

"Let's just hope Carlisle was right about vampires having souls." Bella laughed darkly. "Of course, we wouldn't have to worry about it if you weren't such a coward!"

"I'm no coward!" Alice exclaimed, jumping from her chair with so much force her bar stool toppled over.

"Alice, calm down," Lavender said, placing a hand on her arm.

Bella guffawed again. "Running away from a battle with your little boyfriend when your family needs you the most... no that's not cowardice. What was I thinking of? It's when everyone but me and Jake dies, and you don't even care to check out the aftermath. That makes you a coward."

Alice responded with a growl. "I was trying to _help_ you Bella! Jasper and I were looking for another half vampire when we were attacked!"

The barmaid cleared her throat loudly. "Please, if you're going to have a family dispute, take it outside the Inn," she said with a hint of nervousness.

Mike took the opportunity to request a room for the night and prod Bella towards the stairs. Jacob shot Alice a dark look and followed his companions out of the bar area and up the stairs to their rooms.

Lavender sat in silence for a moment. "Well that was awkward. The tall boy though... you have to admit he was damn sexy."

Alice sniffed. "He smells terrible. Werewolves."

Lavender ignored the unintended jibe and smiled. "So... he's a werewolf, too?"

Alice was distracted, but answered to the best of her ability. "Yes. Sort of. Shapeshifter, really. No tie to the full moon. But essentially, yes, he's a werewolf."

"What's he like?"

"I don't know, Lav, ask him for yourself! I'm going to the room."

Lavender had never seen her friend so shaken before-Alice was not one to hold a grudge or hard feelings for too long. She felt it was best to let her alone. "If you need to talk..." she offered unwillingly.

"I'll be fine," Alice replied, returning the stool to its upright position and bolting upstairs.

Well, that was awkward. Lavender shrugged and paid her tab. The several butterbeers had weakened her already limited inhibitions, and she had every intention of meeting this endearingly scowling gentleman. Inquiring after their room number, she tripped up the creaky old stairs and took an opposite turn down the hall that led to Jacob's room. Perhaps she could even give that Bella girl a piece of her mind for making Alice upset! That would fulfill her friendship duty as well as give her a pretext for meeting the boy.

Not a few seconds after she reached their door, Bella roughly shoved out of the door and paid Lavender no heed as she sped down the stairs Lavender had just ascended. Lavender tried to yell after Bella but Bella was already far out of earshot and far from caring, so Lavender simply knocked on their door to accomplish her original intent.

Mike opened the door to the crack the chain would allow, his face already shrinking back to normal. "Can I help you?" he mumbled in his American accent.

"Yes, you can," she said confidently. She paused to consider her next words and continued cleverly, "I believe your friend, Bella, upsetted my friend Alice, and I would like to try to, you know, clear up the misunderstanding."

Mike examined her carefully and replied, "Bella just went out to hunt."

Lavender gasped. "People?"

Mike smiled slightly. "No. She's a vegetarian."

"Oh," Lavender replied, feeling sillier by the moment. "I... I suppose I'll just return to my room then."

"Okay. It was nice to meet you..."

"Lavender."

"It was nice to meet you, Lavender." With that, Mike closed the door.

Lavender sighed. What an incredible failure. Her flirtation and man-catching skills had rusted since her school days.

Back in their dingy inn room, she found Alice pacing the floor with such rapidity she was nearly invisible. Lavender flopped down on her couch-bed to daydream and plan out her meeting with the Mystery Man. If she was correct, then the full moon was in 2 days or so, so perhaps her plans would be put on hold until she was an attractive human female again. Though she thought she did make a sort of cute wolf. You couldn't see the scars that way, and her coat was a wonderfully shiny pale color. If she were a boy lycanthrope, she would certainly find herself attractive.

She heard a knock at the door not some time later. Her heart fluttered at the thought of Mystery Man coming to call and felt quite like a teenager again. Perhaps it would be more blase of her to let Alice answer the door, but Alice was finally sitting still with a hotel notebook and pen in hand, sketching. Lavender figured she was having another vision of the place with bars and answered the door in eager anticipation.

Instead of an attractive young man, however, a few cloaked creepers greeted her, wearing sick smiles exuding some sort of sadism.

Her first instinct was to slam the door in their faces but one of the men caught it with some strength and forced it open. Her second instinct was to reach for her wand, but it was left on her mattress and before she could snatch it, she and Alice (still too consumed with her vision to pay any notice to their visitors) were hit by stunning spells.

The men grinned. "Way too easy. Easier than the Alliance led us to believe," the leader sighed. "A fight would've been fun but at least we won't be yelled at this time for failure." He gestured to the other two men and each hoisted up a young lady on their shoulders, and with a crack, they disapparated.


	16. The Interrogation

Chapter 16

Lavender awoke with a start, panting for breath. She prayed momentarily she was having a nightmare, but as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she realized that she had no such luck. The walls around her were creaky, abused, and wooden. She seemed to be in some sort of a holding chamber with her arms and legs bound in tightly wound ropes.

"Hello, Miss," said the creeper who must've _ennervated_ her. He had tan skin and a mess of brown hair. He smelled like he hadn't showered in weeks, and he was a bit pudgy as he munched on some McDonald's fries. She scoffed. Idiot American conforming to unjustified stereotypes. She refused to answer him.

"Your name is... Lavender Brown?" he said through a mouthful of trans-fat saturated fries. "Age is mid-20s probably. You're a pretty one. Pity about the whole furry affliction thing, aint it? You'd be a cute one."

She could have barfed.

"So... what are you doing as an upright member of British society-well as upright as a filthy werewolf can be, at least-committing terrorism on the American Magic Department?" he paused in his fry consumption to examine her features. They displayed nothing but shock. "Don't play the dumb blonde, Miss Brown-can I call you Lavender? Either way, you're certainly... _colorful_." He laughed at his pun. "So anyway, intel says a wizard werewolf was involved in a raid on Secretary Bruce Scott's office. We know more about you than you think."

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said icily.

"Lavender Brown, graduate of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 1999 as an 8th year student, Gryffindor House, 4 NEWTS and 5 OWLS, particularly commended in divination, fought in the Great War, bitten by Fenrir Greyback in said war, registered werewolf. Seems like you're a reasonably average wizard/werewolf. So what makes you tick? Why would _you_, a miserably average, boring girl attack a foreign government? Tell me, is being formerly popular, a 'queen bee,' and losing everything because of your lycanthropy enough to drive you to those extremes? Maybe it's because you lost your pretty features to those scars, you wanted to cause a little chaos, get a little attention? Or..." he paused thoughtfully, "are you part of a larger organization?" He gave her a significant stare with his bloodshot eyes.

Lavender was both insulted and utterly perplexed. "Who are you?" she snapped.

"If it's all the same to you, I'd rather ask the questions here," he replied. "Of course, if you're not going to answer me peaceably, we have more forceful means to use."

Lavender snorted. "If you think you can intimidate me, you have another thing coming. I am _Lavender Rose Brown_."

"Okay, then, Lavender Rose Brown," he snorted, "I suppose you win. Would you like a sip of this Diet Coke? I bought it just for you. I hope you don't take the diet as a comment on your weight."

Lavender scowled. "How stupid do you think I am? I know you've spiked that with veritaserum!"

"Of course we did," he replied casually. "I was just offering you to drink it on your own volition. I could use the Imperius Curse, if you'd rather."

Lavender didn't respond and jutted her chin out proudly. He dug a wand out of the pocket of his pants, pointed it at her, and said the incantation. Lavender tried to resist the feeling of control with her force of will, but she had always had trouble resisting _Imperio_. It had cost her on her Defense Against the Dark Arts N.E.W.T., bringing her down to an Acceptable mark. Quite unwillingly, she felt her hand close around the festive McDonald's cup and bring it up to her lips. It tasted like normal Coke, though she knew what was in it.

The man was satisfied and removed the curse. "So, Lavender, could you tell me your weight? That's a secret young ladies guard most effectively."

Against her will, she found herself admitting to being 135 pounds.

He grinned sickly. "Let's try some of the serious questions, Lavender. Why did you raid the American Magic Department?"

"I didn't," she answered quickly. That, at least, she could give up easily.

He frowned and began to get angry. "What did you take from there? Who are you working for?"

"I didn't go to America, I've never been there, I'm working at Primrose Tea Shop in Diagon Alley," she replied.

He frowned even more deeply. "How do you resist veritaserum?"

"I'm not!"

His formerly calm, sarcastic demeanor melted away and he jumped up from his chair, flipping the table between them. Lavender ducked her head but still bore the brunt of the outburst. "GET HER OUT OF HERE, HOLD HER UNTIL STANLEY SHOWS," he yelled towards a back room. A couple other cronies grabbed her by the wrists and dragged her back into the room they emerged from, throwing her on the floor next to Alice, in shackles, and as far as Lavender could tell, under a full-body bind. The room was much worse, they must have had problems subduing her.

She looked around her. It looked like they were in some sort of a small kitchen for a cafe or restaurant. To her left was a window; it was dark out. She didn't know if she had been out for a few hours or a few days.

She heard a distinctive crack of apparition in the other room. She thought it must have been Stanley, but was surprised when she heard a female screech as opposed to a male form of outrage. Not moments later, the interrogator stubbornly strutted in the room with the visitor at his side. She was petite and pretty; she had an air about her that reminded Lavender distinctly of her younger self, except the girl had some sort of nasty edge in her tone.

"ARE YOU A COMPLETE IMBECILE?" she screeched at the interrogator after taking a quick glance at him.

He regarded her coolly, refusing to back down. "I don't see what the problem is, Jessica. You _said_ we were looking for a wizard werewolf and a vampire staying at the Leaky Cauldron in London. One of them is even American! What better bet can you get?"

Jessica face-palmed. "I was looking for a wizard, a werewolf, and a vampire, not a 'wizard werewolf!' And in case you haven't taken a single biology class in your life, she looks rather like a _witch_, not a _wizard_."

"At least now we know the importance of gender specific nouns," he replied, completely unflappable.

"CRUCIO!" she squealed. He cried out in pain. "THIS IS NOT A LAUGHING MATTER, AUGUST. WE'RE TALKING ABOUT WAR."

He whimpered. "What do I do with them?"

Jessica looked at Lavender and Alice, cowering on the ground. "You did catch a Cullen," she sighed. "She will be useful to us. Just... dispose of the witch."

Lavender's heart was pounding. She was wandless and powerless and one simple "Avada Kedavra" away from her life's end. She glanced towards the window, looking at the sky for one last time when the clouds started to clear and she realized she _wasn't_ powerless, not entirely.

Within a matter of seconds, the brilliant full moon appeared in view and its light fell on her face. Within a matter of a few more seconds she was growing and changing; her bones were splitting, she was in excruciating pain, and as her arms and legs became more muscular and wolflike the ropes binding her burst away.

The man and the girl fell back in terror, reaching for their wands. Lavender swept at them with her claw, slashing the girl across the shoulder. She grabbed the man by the robes with her teeth and swung him like a demolition ball into the girl and let go. They both flew across the room and collapsed in the corner. Delicately lifting Alice by her robes, Lavender burst out of the room and found herself in the interrogation area, which she now knew to be the main floor of a cafe. It had been boarded up since the owner disappeared during Voldemort's reign. She had always speculated that it was extremely sketchy and now had her confirmation.

She backed up, began running, and launched herself and one of the boarded windows. It exploded open as she flew out, running down the streets of Diagon Alley and towards a place where she could live through this transformation in peace.

/**

First, thank you to **Shadowed Light** for your review. I don't really approve of Bella either. I was kinda going for a gritty antihero, like Jack Bauer, except in crazy vampire form!

Also, I hope you like the chapter, as well as this April. The summer holidays are almost upon us. Stay strong, my friends.

**/


	17. On the Run

Chapter 17

Alice sighed in relief when she was released from the full-body bind curse. She was good at being still on her own, of course, but being forced so was incredibly annoying to her.

Mike Newton frowned at the thought of unpetrifying Alice. He didn't know if he could trust her, especially if Bella's accusations of her sister-in-law were true. But if a giant, yelping werewolf shows up at your inn door, thrusting an old classmate at you vigorously, it's kind of difficult to ignore the problem.

"Thank you," Alice piped in her girlish voice. She sniffed a distinctly disgusting dog smell, one far more familiar than Lavender's. She turned her head to see Jacob Black staring at her with a look of uninhibited derision.

"You're welcome," said Mike, unshaken. "But we need an explanation. Who is this werewolf friend of yours, why are you in London, and why should we trust you?"

Alice did not want to tell this kid anything, but perhaps if she explained to him, she could explain to Bella... she was the only family she had left, after all. "This is my new best friend, Lavender Brown. I was following a lead, trying to find another half-vampire to prove to the Volturi that Renesme wasn't dangerous, and Jasper and I were attacked."

Mike's eyes widened in recognition. "Lavender. She stopped by our room yesterday night. She's a werewolf?"

He may have imagined it, but it looked almost like the Lavender wolf was embarrassed.

"Cool," Jacob cut in. "Dude, just phase back. How'd you even fit through the lobby?"

"She _can't_ phase back, idiot," Alice spat at him. "She's not a shape-shifter, she _has_ to remain a wolf for the duration of the full moon."

Jacob scowled. Mike diverted the conversation. "What happened to you, Alice? Why were you cursed?"

She frowned. "Some people kidnapped us. I don't know what else happened. I tried to escape as soon as they revived me, and after that I was petrified. Lavender phased and got us out of there eventually."

Mike contemplated this for a moment. "We need to talk to Lavender. Jacob, wolves can like mind-communicate or something, right?"

Jacob was scandalized. "I can't phase in front of them! They're girls!"

"Who cares? You had a girl in your pack!"

"Leah was barely a girl. Besides, there wouldn't be enough room for us in the room."

"I need to confirm something, Jacob," Mike complained. "Just do it!"

Jacob grumbled and phased most elegantly.

There was some awkward and random barking and growling. After a few minutes, Jake phased back and quickly covered himself up from the girls' eyes. "I don't know, it's like they thought Alice and Lavender were us or something," he said, uncharacteristically embarrassed. "And I would personally like to thank you sarcastically for making me share awkward personal experiences through my thoughts with a stranger."

Mike ignored the latter comment. "Did she say who 'they' were?"

Jacob shrugged. "Eh, she was sort of short. Familiar looking. Named Stanley or something. Terrible name for a girl. I don't understand parents. Then again, I was planning on naming my future children with Nessie 'Loch' and 'Monster' to go with the theme."

Mike gasped. "Jessica Stanley! Oh, I know her of old..."

"Yeah, you went to prom with her. We know," said Bella, standing behind him suddenly. He jumped. Her eyes were so bright, they were almost sunshine yellow. She must have gorged herself on animal blood over the past day of hunting. "Back from hunting. Jessica's an evil witch?"

Mike nodded. "We have a long history. That's why I broke up with her in 9th grade." He sighed. "When she tried to get the guy at the movie theatre to sell us tickets to an R-rated movie with the Imperius Curse, I knew it wasn't going to work out. During junior year when I started vampire hunting, I had suspicions that she had started work with the Alliance. That was confirmed when she tried to assassinate me on prom night."

"I don't remember that happening!"

"Yeah... you were a bit distracted with Edward outside in the gazebo. When you two were making out, we had a duel inside. I won, but afterwards it took teams of obliviators to confuse the muggles and we both received a reprimand for misuse of magic in front of muggles... Suffice to say it was the most interesting dance I've ever been to."

Bella swore. She _always_ missed the cool battles! The only battle she had actually seen was the one where her whole family died.

"Oh, and we have to get out of here, because they're coming for us," Jacob added as an afterthought.

"You couldn't have mentioned that first?" exclaimed Mike. His stress was showing. "Alice, grab Lavender's wand, she can take off this anti-apparition jinx as soon as she goes back to normal." He started packing the files into an improvized undetectable extension charmed version of Audrey's purse. "Bella, make up with your sister, because I don't want any vampire fights. They're way too loud. Jacob, put on clothing, your rock-hard abs are starting to damage my self-esteem. Let's move it, people!"

In a jiffy, the five bolted down the stairs to the Inn, securing curious or frightened patrons, and disappeared into the night.

/**

Sorry for the day late. This week was crazy. I want to punch college in the face. I mean, like the entire concept of college-punch. in. face. Anyway, thanks to **NaomiTrekkie **and **sportytc **for the reviews :D

**/


	18. Safe House

Chapter 18

Draco Malfoy generally enjoyed his life as a full-time househusband. He spent little time in public, thus avoiding the withering stares received from all quarters due to his asinine adolescent decisions. He got to spend quality time with his 18 month old son, a pleasure never accorded him as the child of two busy Death Eater parents. Finally, it relieved him of the mortification of often running into his highly successful childhood rivals, who were well near ubiquitous in the wizarding world these days.

Unfortunately for him, his continued existence was in debt to too many people to count, all of whom were far braver than he. Even more unfortunately, his past record was rife with blackmail. So when he found himself increasingly at the mercy of the well-connected and informed American Auror Tim Kirk, who exploited both these facts with an astounding degree of ruthlessness, he found himself hiring babysitters and abandoning his post as househusband to set off Percy Weasley's house alarms and make him miss a portkey to America. This was easy enough to hide from his wife, who would have slapped him for being a fool.

However, allowing two vampires, two werewolves, and a sketchy teenage wizard stay at his house for some secret resistance movement was a totally different matter.

He skimmed over the piece of parchment the motley gang had handed him on his doorstep at 3 in the morning. _Mr. Malfoy, pursuant to our arrangement made shortly after the decimation of the Volturi, I request another duty. Remember, the agreement regards your assistance to my small group of American Aurors in the UK in exchange for concealment of yet unrevealed information about your foray as a Death Eater..._

"No way in hell," he said, mostly to himself. He glanced up at the raggedy crew. "No way. No no no no no no no no no no NO. This is TOO MUCH. I have an infant in the house! If you don't kill us, my wife will! No, you'll just have to get a hotel room somewhere. Goodbye." He tried to slam the door, but Bella stuck her hand in the crack and forced it open. Draco's face paled and he stared up at her in pure terror, whimpering.

"Look, bro, you don't want to mess with me. Do you know how many people I've killed in the past month?" Bella hissed.

"Please don't hurt me!"

"Then let us in!"

He sighed and stepped aside. "Just... be quiet about it. Take the basement. I have leftover steak and kidney pie in the freezer down there." They pushed past him, though the blonde boy stopped to shake his hand pleasantly. A paltry gesture for someone blackmailing him. Oh dear. The werewolf was trying to push her way through the narrow stairways in his townhouse down to the basement. Oh dear, she was damaging the crown moulding. Curse Tim Kirk.

Around the break of dawn, he was awaken once again to find Tim Kirk himself at the door. "Mr. Malfoy," he said politely. "I see you've decided to retain our agreement."

"I bloody hate you," Draco sneered in reply. "They're in the basement."

Tim smirked and pushed past him. He disappeared down the staircase the werewolf managed to squeeze herself down. In addition to Mike, who was looking over a legal pad of notes and a large stack of files; Bella, who looked positively bored sitting on the futon next to Mike; and Jacob, who was snoring loudly on the floor; there were two other individuals. Another vampire was sitting on the arm of the futon next to Bella, braiding her hair, and a scarred girl in tattered clothing lay near Mike's feet, sleeping like the dead.

Mike looked up immediately. "Kirk, it's good to see you," he said brightly.

"You've examined the Department's files? I have to say, you caused quite a bit of ruckus back in the States," Kirk admitted. "You've been keeping a lower profile here, I hope."

"Not exactly," Mike replied. "Jessica Stanley has a band of idiots after us. They accidentally pegged Lavender and Alice."

Kirk nodded. "So what's going down?" He looked at Jacob, whose snores practically drowned out Kirk's question. Bella kicked him hard on the side. He awoke with a startle.

"Have you ever heard the old line, 'never let a crisis go to waste?'" Mike began.

"No," growled Jacob. "Now can I go back to sleep?"

Mike rolled his eyes. "As I was going to say," Mike continued, "that's exactly what the International Alliance is trying to do. The death of the Volturi has resulted in an incredible amount of vampire violence. Scott is involved in purposefully ignoring the problem and allowing it to escalate.

"As the violence escalates, the International Alliance will appear, claiming that the only way to control the crisis is to enact their ideals: namely, the legalization of unforgivables, the end of the International Statute of Secrecy, and the subjugation of muggles, supposedly to 'protect' them. Scott takes the fall, the Alliance takes over, and... we're all screwed.

"As far as Jessica Stanley goes, it looks like she's in the more militant side of the Alliance. You know, tracking down opposition and all that. But for her to be so far up just after finishing training, she must have some amazing connections. If we find her, we can find the ringleader."

Kirk hesitated. "Surely the Alliance would not trust valuable information with a 19 year old recruit."

"Kirk, it's our only hope in finding the leader of the Alliance and stopping this massacre!"

Kirk winced. "We will out Scott as a criminal using these files," he declared, taking the files and notes from Mike. "And you can chase down Jessica Stanley. Just try not to die." He glanced and Bella, who seemed unnaturally calm. "Has she been keeping her rage in check?"

Mike shrugged. "Within reason."

"Okay then," Kirk said. "As to the vampire and girl, we can offer them protection..."

"Excuse me," cut in Alice, "but I don't need your protection. I'm sticking with Bella. She's the only family I have left."

Kirk regarded her coolly. "She's trustworthy, and a seer may be helpful. But if your team grows too large, it may become less effective. What about the girl?"

Lavender dozed peacefully on the ground. "She needs me," said Alice again. "I can't leave her by herself, she has no family or friends or anywhere to stay. And she saved our lives."

Kirk frowned. "I swear, Newton, this is a serious risk..."

"I know," replied Mike. "But it's one we're all willing to take."

"Find Stanley. Learn what you can. Report back to me. This is our rendezvous house in case of emergency." Kirk turned towards the stairs. "And if you're offered steak and kidney pie, don't take it. English food is disgusting." He disappeared.

"So... what now?" Jacob asked.

"Now, we hunt down the girl who is trying to kill us," Mike replied nonchalantly.

Bella deeply missed the uncomplicated days of killing a few vampires every night in revenge. But at least she had a sister again and a legitimate reason to dislike Jessica other than that she talks to much and she had a crush on her boyfriend.

They woke up Lavender and climbed the stairs to the foyer. A tall, brunette woman in her early twenties stared at them in astonishment from the sitting room where she enjoyed her coffee. Draco was rapidly making kill motions, but they didn't notice in time.

"Who the bloody hell are you?" exclaimed the woman.

They froze. Mike smiled. "Thank you for your hospitality, we'll be going now," he said awkwardly. They ran out of the house and disapparated from the porch. As they disappeared, Bella could hear faintly the startled cry of, "Honey, could you PLEASE explain to me why we have the Scooby Doo gang living in our basement!"

Despite her dangerous career choices, she distinctly felt more fear for her former host's life than for her own.

/**

An early update today because I'm crazy busy tomorrow (as in, crazy busy going to THE AVENGERS). Also, I apologize for the double notifications, I realized after I published this that it needed some serious correcting. Thanks for reading!

**/


	19. Skirmish at the Bar

Chapter 19

Jessica Stanley was becoming frustrated. It seemed like the Alliance was purposefully hiring idiot underlings just to annoy her. Finding a Cullen was a decent start, but the full moon just happening to coincide with the date of capture of a werewolf was extremely obnoxious.

She was also sort of getting bored with torturing people for information. Who was she, Jack Bauer? At least he was creative about it. She just used cruciatus. Every time. Maybe after she finished off the Leaky Cauldron barmaid, she'd switch it up a little. Now, efficiency was the key.

She strode into the bar that night. Sure enough, the owner was alone behind the bar, cleaning glasses. Jessica nodded to the current idiot underling. He locked the door of the inn behind them, and joined her confronting the woman.

"Can I help you, ma'am?" asked the woman.

"Expelliarmus," Jessica replied simply. The woman was completely unprepared. "Grab her." The idiot lunged and restrained the woman, who continued to struggle.

"Who are you? Let go of me!" she tried shouting. The idiot put his hand over her mouth. She bit him, and he winced.

"Crucio!" Jessica called. The woman screamed. "Look, erm... Hannah, is it? There's an easy way and a hard way for this interrogation to go. Just, like, not even a few days ago, I crucioed my ex-boyfriend's mom nearly to insanity, I dunno. So I wouldn't have any problem doing it to you. Three Americans-a vampire, a wizard, and a werewolf-checked in here a while ago. Where are they now?"

"I'm not saying anything until you tell me who you are and what you want!"

"Crucio."

The woman cried out again. "My... my husband used to be an auror! He'll kick your butt when he comes home!"

"Bitch please. I own a _squad_ of aurors," Jessica sighed. "Crucio! Where is Bella Swan!"

Hannah screamed again. "I! DON'T! KNOW!"

"You know! Tell me-" Jessica was interrupted by a soft "Alohomora" and a click at the door.

A stoutly built blonde gentleman stood at the door in utter confusion. "Hannah? What the heck?" he said.

"Neville, get her!"

"Expelli-"

"Protego!" he countered. It was a very forceful shield charm; Jessica was thrown back by the force into Hannah and her underling. Hannah used the opportunity to wrench free of her captor and shove Jessica out of the way. She grabbed her own wand from the floor where it landed and raised it at the attackers.

Jessica shot a curse their way as Neville and Hannah cried "Stupefy" in unison. Their countercurses collided with Jessica and the underling as hers barely grazed Neville on the jaw. Other than shock and some bruises, they were both intact.

"What just happened? Are you okay?"

Hannah smiled. "Just fine. This is the second night in a row a bunch of thugs showed up bothering my patrons! Who would've thought owning an inn would be such a dangerous occupation!"

"_Second_ night? You didn't mention being attacked yesterday!"

"Well, you were just telling me such a delightful story about the Gryffindor first years' trouble with the Mimbus Mimbletonia I didn't think _my_ story would've been interesting!"

"What happened then, my dear?"

"Oh a couple of buggers came here demanding to know where Lavender and that vampire were staying, and I thought they were friends, so I told them! But when one of them tried to curse me, I fought them and, well, two got away, but I stupefied the third and locked him in the broom closet! You know, there's probably enough room for these two in there if we take out that old Cleansweep..."

Neville contemplated this. "Perhaps we should call the Department of Magical Law Enforcement! But in the meanwhile, the broom closet sounds reasonable."

/**

Hannah + Neville = OTP anyone? Anyway, exams are now behind me and I can resume writing this story. Happy reading!

**/


	20. Another Darkening Alley

Chapter 20

Bella was in her element. A darkening alley. Seattle-esque rain. Just the quiet stillness and shimmer of an evil vampire, about to be decimated. Of course, Mike had to come with her, which was kind of annoying. She preferred fighting with Jake, but he and Lavender had gone off to search together, and Alice was enjoying some much needed hunting.

"Hey bloodsucker!" she shouted. The vampire turned slowly, and sighed.

"Seriously? Just because you're a vampire yourself doesn't make the term 'bloodsucker' any less racist," said the anonymous vampire. "Can't you tell I'm trying to catch some dinner here?"

Bella pouted. This wasn't going well. "That's why I'm trying to _stop _you, stupid!"

"_Bombarda_," Mike said. An explosion flung the vampire backwards into the confused, scared human he had been hunting.

"Well, um, thanks?" he said, seizing the girl, who was too terrified to even scream. The moment his teeth grazed her throat, Bella tackled him and pinned him to the ground, ripping off his head swiftly.

"Work on your aim, Mike," Bella chastised as she tore her kill to pieces. "That was too close."

"Whatever, Bella," he replied harshly. "Hey, are you okay over there?" he spoke to the near victim in a much softer tone. He walked over and offered her a hand up.

"Wha-what just happened?" the girl squeaked. She couldn't be more than 17.

"You'd best learn how to fight vampires; I have a feeling they'll start to attack much more frequently," he replied.

"Oh thank you!" she cried, flinging her arms around Mike. The hug took him aback slightly, but he returned it with good grace. Bella snorted.

"You're welcome," she said angrily. "Now get out of here before someone else tries to kill you." The girl ran off to the closest shop.

"Have you ever thought about being nice to people, Bella?" Mike said. He probably wouldn't have picked a fight were he not completely exhausted and stressed.

"What would _you_ know about being nice, Mike?"

"A lot, actually! I'm nice to everyone. _You_ however are constantly enraged at everything! You never think of anyone but yourself!"

"That's not true!"

"Oh yeah, you think about _Edward_, but he's _dead!_"

Bella screamed and threw a punch at Mike. It hit him square in the eye. He retaliated with a stinging hex which hit Bella in the gut. She grabbed him by the shirt and hoisted him off the ground threateningly.

"Take back what you said about Edward!"

Mike rolled his eyes (or eye, rather-the other was already swelling shut). "It's _true_ Bella! Edward's dead! And killing all these vampires isn't going to bring him back!"

"Then I quit!" she grumbled, dropping him on his butt.

"Don't quit!" he yelled. "We need you to stop the evil vampires and wizards!"

"Oh really? I thought you wanted me to move on!"

"No! Well, yes! But you're good at fighting," he replied lamely. She started to walk away, and he yelled after her, "I fight vampires because I want to help good conquer evil and all those delightful literary themes! But you're going to destroy yourself if you just do this for revenge!" She still didn't turn around. "I'm not your babysitter or your dad or your guardian or whatever, Bella, and I don't want to be, but I'll be your friend if you let me!"

"What makes you think I want you as a friend?"

"Because I got you that job at my parents' store! Because every time Jacob or Edward were being asses to you, _I_ was the one who hung out with you! Because I'm one of the only people on the face of the earth that puts up with your emo vampire crap!"

Before Bella could respond to this, her vampire ears picked up great commotion a few blocks down.

"Something's happening!"

"What?"

She grabbed him fireman style and ran off towards the direction of the noise. She flew through the rain at top speed, dodging around corners and down alleyways until she found herself on Diagon Alley in front of the Leaky Cauldron. The door was locked, so she threw herself against it and into the establishment.

The frazzled innkeeper and her husband were shoving some people in a broom closet, and they both jumped in shock when Bella burst in.

"Oh! You're Bella, right? I think this girl was looking for you!" exclaimed Hannah, who held Jessica's limp body aloft with her husband.

Bella dropped Mike in shock. He jumped up instantly. "Be careful! She's an evil militant witch bent on throwing the world into chaos!" he exclaimed.

"Well she certainly didn't seem very pleasant to me, either!" replied Hannah. "Shall we call the Aurors?"

"Don't worry about it, we'll handle her," replied Mike. "I'm a trained vampire hunter."

Neville looked weary about handing off the attacker to a sketchy young man, but figured Mike had enough of an air of authority about him to trust.

Bella hoisted up Jessica on her shoulder and carried her out. "Thank you so much for your help, and sorry for any trouble we may have caused! Have a nice evening," said Mike quickly, guiding Bella out the door somewhat ungently. "This is so exciting!" he exclaimed to Bella. "Now all we do is wait for Jacob, Lavender, and Alice to return and then we can work on Jessica! We should celebrate. Wait, are you still mad at me? Or are you willing to have a drink or two? It's legal here!"

"I only drink blood, Mike!"

"Great, a designated driver. Let's go."

/**

Sorry about the late update, my peeps. I was working late yesterday and the day before.

**/


	21. The Bombshell

Chapter 21

The sun finally rose and Lavender could feel herself shrinking back into a girl. Within a matter of minutes, she was human. She pulled on the tattered clothing she reserved for her time of month and decided to strike up a conversation with Jacob as they walked back to their host's house from the alleyway they had paused in.

"...So... who's this Renesme girl you were thinking about?" she asked. She couldn't have picked a more awkward subject.

Jacob sighed. "An ex-lover. Well sort of? Kind of like a little sister too. She was a baby."

"You dated a _baby?"_

He laughed awkwardly. "Not really? It was more like an ageless timeless werewolf love thing."

Lavender pondered this. "So you prefer younger girls to, um, older ones?"

"Oh! Well, no, before that I liked Bella! And she's older than me. She was Renesme's mom!"

"What! That's just... weird!"

"I know, right? Imprints are messed up. Totally not doing that again. If I can help it, that is. I hope I can! Now that Nessie has, to put it politely, kicked the bucket, I guess, it's weird to think about. This is an uncomfortable conversation. Do you like motorcycles?" Jacob rambled.

"I've never ridden one! But I've ridden a broom!"

Jacob gasped. "Sweet! Like a witch or something?"

"I _am_ a witch!"

"Legit!"

They reached Draco's house and sauntered inside without knocking. "Morning, Mr. Malfoy, Mrs. Malfoy!" Jacob shouted, too jovially for the situation. Draco waved awkwardly and his wife scowled as the two werewolves descended to the basement.

Waiting for them were Alice, Bella, Mike, and tied to a chair, Jessica Stanley. "Jacob! Lavender!" said Mike, slightly too enthusiastically. "This's got to be the best night of my life!" He leaped up to hug them as soon as they approached. "Did you know we found Jessica Stanley? She was in a closet! Haha, she came out of the closet, get it! And then Bella and I had so much fun, did you know firewhiskey is legal here? It tastes like fire... and whiskey! How are you?"

Jacob guffawed. Mike looked like an idiot.

"Have you tried talking to her yet?" asked Lavender, gesturing towards Jessica.

"No," replied Bella sourly. "She hasn't woken up from the stupefy yet. And Mike wanted to celebrate first."

"And we _did!_ You know it was fun!" Mike added, unhelpfully. "Bella sang a duet with me. We sang 'Breaking Free' from _High School Musical_. It was the best karaoke ever."

Bella face-palmed. "Can you just, like, go to sleep like a regular human and let us handle Jessica?" she suggested.

"Really? Could you? You're awesome, all of you. I love you guys." He tried to hug Bella but she shoved him over, and he fell onto the sofa. Within five minutes, poor Mike was fast asleep.

"Okay, Jessica. Can you wake her up?" Bella asked Lavender.

Lavender nodded and lofted her wand. "_Ennervate_."

Jessica awoke with a start. "WTF? Where am I... YOU!" she shouted.

"Yes, _me_," replied Bella snidely. "We found out you were chasing us, so we decided to turn the table. How's life in the Alliance?"

"Pretty terrible. I can't get a single competent underling. It's like the universe is trolling me. How's married life? Oh, right... I forgot," Jessica said harshly.

"It was great. And how's your relationships going? Oh, I forgot, you're a heartless jerk who can't keep a man interested for more than five minutes," Bella replied angrily. "I'm pulling out all the stops, Jessica. I feel kind of like Jack Bauer right now. So tell me who your connections are."

"Easily," replied Jessica. "Though I don't think you'll like the answer."

"Oh really?" said Bella sarcastically. "Please, inform me why!"

"Okay," Jessica replied, smirking. "My immediate overseer is Tim Kirk."

/**

OH SNAP OH SNAP. Anyway late update again because of work. I may just start updating on Saturday's anyway. Please do review and tell me if you like the story!

**/


	22. Disapparate!

Chapter 22

Bella, Jacob, and Lavender gasped. Mike snored.

"Alice!" Bella immediately yelled. Alice, however, was consumed in a vision again, and was rapidly sketching on a page of a discarded coloring book.

"That's impossible," Bella said to Jessica, recovering herself. "Kirk ordered us to find you! He's helped us out this whole time!"

"Has he?" said Jessica drolly. "He's had you running around in Britain looking over incriminating but obvious files which you haven't even bothered to publish to the media, while in _America_ a street war is being fought. And guess who's been winning while we've been playing our little game of cat and mouse?"

"You shut up!"

"Bella, you're just fortunate a few new werewolves came of age at La Push to protect your precious daddy. Mike wasn't as lucky. Is he sleeping over there? Tsk, tsk. Losing his edge."

Bella growled, trying to read Jessica. Lavender was entirely befuddled. Jacob began, "Seriously, Bella, why would she tell the truth to us, you just need to-"

"LAVENDER!" Alice squealed, cutting him off. Jacob grumbled as she continued, "The vision with the bars! It's finally clear! I think we're in danger!"

"We're always in danger, perky pants," Jacob said sardonically. "Everyone just needs to calm the hell down. Obviously, Jessica is just trying to confuse us..."

Upstairs a loud squeal drowned him out, and suddenly feet were pounding on the stairs. Jessica smirked. "Wake up Mike!" Bella shouted. She flipped the sofa over, giving them cover. Mike tumbled to the ground.

"Bella?" he slurred. "Is it morning already?"

"We're under attack!" she shouted. "Do something!"

A large group of wizards in cloaks appeared at the foot of the stairs, charging them with all manner of curses. Lavender took out one with a full body bind, and another immediately shot a stupefy at her. Jacob took the brunt of it, but due to his extraordinary physical form it didn't fully knock him out. Lavender retaliated with a counter-curse and the attacker went flying against the opposite wall.

Meanwhile, Alice and Bella were fighting one particularly threatening wizard. Though the cloak hid his face, they had no doubt he was a vampire as well. While Alice dodged his attacks with grace, Bella attacked him with extreme ferocity until he was nearly crippled. While engaged thus, Alice took a stupefy to the back and fell. Bella launched herself at the attacker and kneed him in the stomach. She flung his limp body into another two wizards who also collapsed.

Mike was cursing himself for his overconfidence the night before. His reflexes were fried from his inebriation, but he managed to take out one or two Alliance wizards while hiding behind the couch. A third was just about to attack him when suddenly a body of another wizard flew into the attacker and flung him across the room. Confused, he looked up to see Bella gleefully throwing bodies around like a madwoman. He couldn't help but smile at the absurdity of it all, but thus distracted the couch was hit by a particularly strong curse that knocked him over and flung the sofa on top of him, trapping him. He continued to fight until he was disarmed and his wand was far out of reach.

Jacob struggled to phase; he could barely stand as it was. He managed, finally, to morph into a large wolf, and took up a good deal of room in the small basement. He took out one wizard with a good swipe with his claws, and allowed Lavender the cover to attack a few more herself, but another stupefy curse knocked him out entirely.

Bella could tell at this point that they were fighting a hopeless battle, and simply needed to get the heck out of there. Lavender could barely stand due to some curse that made her legs incredibly unstable. Mike was grasping for his wand, just barely out of his reach. She hoisted Alice and darted over towards Mike, slamming his wand into his hand. "Get us out of here!" she shouted.

He nodded. "Lavender, take Jacob," he called. She nodded and disapparated with a crack soon afterwards. Holding Bella's wrist with one hand and his wand with the other, he began to disapparate to the first place that came to mind-the sketched picture that he had been staring at while groping for his wand for the past few minutes.

When Bella opened her eyes, she, Mike, and Alice were in a dank, foggy chamber seemingly supported by iron bars. In the distance she could hear the roar of the ocean.

"Oh, I recognize this place now!" Mike said, laughing.

"Where?" Bella demanded.

His laugh choking up, he replied, "Azkaban."


	23. Wolf Pack

Chapter 23

When Lavender opened her eyes, she was in the first place that came to mind: Hogsmeade, naturally. The location of her last battle. She dropped Jacob to the ground; he was getting heavy. He looked dead when he slept. She smiled despite herself and quietly said, "Ennervate."

"Lavender! Where are they!" he jumped up, ready to phase, until he saw himself in the middle of a quiet wizarding village.

"We had to disapparate," she replied.

"Where's Mike and Bella? And her demonic friend, I guess," he added.

"Alice is _not_ demonic, she's sweet!" Lavender exclaimed. "And they disapparated together."

"Where to?"

Neither Lavender nor Jacob was the smartest tool in the shed, but Lavender soon recalled Alice's vision. "The place with the bars, of course!" she replied. "She was right, her visions _are_ climatically timed to create suspense! That's so... literary!"

"Do they really need to be visiting more bars?" asked Jacob. "I didn't know Mike was an alcoholic when I agreed to hang out with him."

"No, I mean literal bars!" Lavender explained. She squeaked, "We need to save them!"

"Gah! That doesn't make any sense," Jacob replied. "If she had a vision of the event, then we must not be there, because she can't see werewolves."

Lavender pondered this. "We have to do _something_!"

"I _know_!" he exclaimed. "Bella's my best friend for some inexplicable reason, and I don't want to leave her, but we have no idea where they are!" Jacob started pacing back and forth, hands shaking like he was going to phase any minute. Lavender strained her brain, trying to think of the place with the bars and what it could be.

"Wait!" Jacob exclaimed. "Maybe they went back to Forks! Maybe Mike thought it was the best chance of stopping the bloodsuckers!"

"But apparating that far is so dangerous! He could've splinched off half his body!" she replied.

"Do you have any better ideas?"

"Well, what if we _do_ go to Forks, and that _isn't_ the place they are, because if it were, Alice wouldn't have had the vision, and so we _shouldn't_ go to Forks?" she babbled.

"This hurts my brain," Jacob said. "Bright side is, it's still night there, so you'd be a wolf!"

"That's not a bright side," she replied.

"I dunno, you fight good as a werewolf. Plus you kind of make a cute wolf."

"You really think so? See I thought so myself but usually people just kind of freak out at the fact that I'm a wolf in the first place."

"Yeah, whatever, so are we going or not?" he said somewhat brusquely.

"Let's do it." She pulled off her tattered old sneaker for a portkey and spoke the incantation. They held onto the sneaker and let it magic them instantaneously to Forks.

It was pitch black and raining. The clouds covered the moon, allowing Lavender to remain human for a while longer. Lavender could hear the roar of the ocean in the distance and was instantly reminded of Alice's description of the roar in her vision.

"Well, we missed Forks, but we're like a block from my house," Jake remarked. "Let's get going!" Lavender struggled to keep up with him as they charged down the pavement towards a dumpy little house in view of the ocean. Jacob shoved through the door, and nodded for Lavender to follow. They squeezed into a tiny living room where Charlie was sleeping on the couch and Billy was rolling back and forth apprehensively in his wheelchair.

"Jake!" he exclaimed. "Where have you been?"

"Bella and I ran into that marshmallow from her high school, Mike, and killed some vampires and stuff. Have you seen them around here?"

"No, but it's good you're back. We thought since the Cullens were killed, the werewolf gene would die out, but a couple of the young Fullers and the Youngs are phasing already and trying to fight all these vampires coming. They're going to get themselves killed, Jacob, you've got to help them."

"Argh!" Jacob exclaimed. "Dad, Bella and marshmallow man and Bella's demonic-I mean sweet leech friend might be fighting vampires and wizard thugs as we speak! Oh, did you know wizards existed? It's kinda awesome, they shoot lightning out of sticks and stuff, right Lavender?"

"Yes, well, we do other things too," she said.

"Oh, and this is Lavender, she's a wolf, she's cool. Where's the pack now?" he said.

"They were sweeping the woods. They really have no clue what they're doing. Is _she_ Quileute?" he replied, eying her blonde hair and pale complexion with disbelief.

"No. It's a long story. Come on, Lavender, better get phasing..."

"So she's a _Child of the Moon_?"

"You know, it's better not to think about it too hard. In a perfect world, none of us would exist in the first place, and weird distinctions between people that turn into vaguely canine creatures that kill vampires wouldn't have to be drawn for the sake of plot convenience. Later, dad."

The two pushed through the cramped living room out into the night, where the clouds were finally beginning to part.

"It'll be good to be part of a pack again," Jacob said with his werewolf telepathy. "It's amazing sharing your innermost thoughts with a whole bunch of brothers, even if they are all going to be incompetent 13 year old boys. Plus Leah isn't there to make it awkward. Promise me you won't be super passive aggressive and think about periods and stuff like she did?"

"Um, okay?" Lavender replied.

"Thanks, you're cool. Hey I can hear them now..." Suddenly, a small pack of three or four wolves came into view. They were lunging incompetently at a shimmering vampire who was easily outmaneuvering them. Jacob's heart leaped. He poured on the speed and flew at the vampire, pinning it to the ground with his paws and tearing it to pieces.

"And _that's_ how you fight a vampire," Jacob said to the other pack members. "By the way, are you my pack by default or do I have to challenge someone?"

"Jacob Black! Can I have your autograph!" a reddish wolf cried in his head.

"Dude, I thought you said you were going to play it cool," replied a gray wolf.

"Shut up!" the red wolf snapped back, shoving into the gray wolf with his shoulder.

"Wait, who's the girl?" said the third, a stout black wolf.

"Girls? There are girls?" exclaimed the red one excitedly. He eyed the wolf Lavender. "Heeeey..."

"I'm at least ten years older than you," she replied. "That's just creepy."

"Okay, everyone, shut up or I'll _make_ you shut up!" Jacob said. "Have you been running the reservation for a while?"

"Like a few weeks since you left with Bella Swan," said the black one, who was clearly becoming the Beta. "By the way, I'm Peter Uley. That's Josh Young and Will Call," he added, nodding to the red and grey wolves in turn.

"Bella! Have you seen her tonight?" Jacob asked.

"Sorry, dude. Just killing some stray vampires that have been hunting the area. They've been completely swarming the major cities though, people dying in the newspapers every morning. We're just trying to protect the reservation."

Jacob growled in frustration.

"Jake, we could just keep looking for them," Lavender suggested. "I think Alice's vision was of a place near the ocean. They still may be here."

"Or they could be anywhere in the world near a body of water!" Jake exclaimed. "Which is like, everywhere on Earth! No, we need to do what we can. Starting with killing that Kirk bastard.

"Listen up. Tonight, we're killing vampires. Tomorrow, we're killing a blonde Auror traitor and every evil wizard and vampire we can find in this town, because we're-"

"-the most noble and ancient house of Black?" Lavender suggested.

"I like the ring of that!" Jacob said. "It's _classy_."


	24. Cellblocked

Chapter 24

"If Azkaban is a prison," Bella asked, "where are all the inmates?"

"The prison hasn't actually been used in years," Mike explained. "It was a sort of cruel and unusual punishment, so they moved all the inmates into more standard prisons, free of dementors." He groaned. "I don't feel too well."

"I'll hold your hair. I always used to do that for Rosalie when she had a bit too much reindeer blood," Alice suggested.

"I don't have enough hair to hold, but I appreciate the offer, Alice," Mike replied. "Stupid, stupid me..."

"Mike, we need to focus!" Bella shouted. "There has to be some reason we're here, or Alice wouldn't have had the vision!"

"But we're only here _because_ of Alice's vision," Mike said. "I hate ontological paradoxes. We need to find Kirk..."

"I'm sure Lavender and Jacob are on it back in Washington," Alice assured. "They can't be here, afterall. I cannot see werewolves."

"I always hated Divination in high school," Mike groaned. "It doesn't make any sense."

A frustrated Bella closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. Instead of the quiet relief, however, she felt a sinking sensation and a chill on her already ice-cold vampire skin, and her worst memory bombarded her brain in perfect clarity. Pale little Renesme, calling her mother's name a last time before she was torn to pieces; Edward's perfect head, rolling in the grass...

"Oh, what a cap to the day!" grumbled Mike, his words barely filtering into Bella's horrifying perception. "Bella! Think happy thoughts!"

She ignored him. She was arrested by the vision as a dense fog surrounded her.

"Dammit! Why do you have to be so morbid! _Expecto Patronum!_" Mike shouted as dementors began to surround Bella. A puff of silvery light appeared, but no corporeal patronus. He focused desperately on the feeling when he defeated his first evil vampire, his recruitment by Kirk, who was now a two-faced bastard... He shook his head. Stupid dementors. Stupid, perennially depressed Bella, who was about to lose her soul because she was too angst-ridden. _Just think about last night, Mike_, he repeated to himself. _Think about "Breaking Free." That was pretty awesome. You were like Zefron up there, except without waxed eyebrows._

"_EXPECTO PATRONUM!_" he shouted, because patronus charms are only effective if spoken in caps lock. A ghostly panda bear lumbered around the cell, whacking at dementors with a piece of ghostly bamboo and gnawing on their heads lazily. The dementors were repelled away from Bella, and she gasped as she was abruptly pulled from her flashback.

"Awwww, who's this adorable guy?" she said, actually smiling, as the panda bear patronus lazily floated around her.

"A patronus. They represent someone's happiest memories, so they can repel dementors," Mike said, as the panda dissolved. "You're a dementor's dream come true, you're so full of teen angst, depression, and hatred. They feed on negative emotions and eventually suck out your soul. So... try to avoid that."

She was going to growl at him, but realized it was beside the point. "Let's get going before more of them show up. I have a feeling there's more here than us and denominators."

"Dementors."

"That too," Bella said. "Alice, do you see anything?"

"I agree about the other people, Bella," she replied, pressing her forefingers to her temple. "But seeing as this building all looks the same, it's hard to tell where they are. We could try tracking their scent, if Mike's weren't in the way."

Bella paused, smelled the air and listened for heartbeats. "Down this cellblock and upwards, do you think?" Bella asked Alice.

"You're newborn, your senses are better than mine," she replied sadly, but added with warmth, "Except your fashion sense. I'm sorry, I have to say it, Bella. You've been lost the past few months without me. Skinny jeans just don't flatter you, and the ironic Vampire Weekend shirt is passe."

"Now is not the time, Alice!" Bella reminded her as they crept along the corridor at an agonizing human speed. "Pick up the pace, Mike, or we'll pick it up for you!"

"How would you do that?"

Bella nodded at Alice, who lifted poor Mike up over her shoulder. The two streaked past cell after dilapidated cell with rusted iron bars and foggy, clammy atmospheres. The narrow stairway at the end of the hall wound upwards in a spiral, disallowing a traveler to see more than three stairs ahead of him.

So naturally, clumsy Bella flew upwards carelessly until she smacked right into a person descending the stairs. But unlike a human, he didn't budge when she collided with him, whereas she flew backwards down the steps.

Alice saw Bella's body fly through the air in a parabola and dropped to the ground to avoid a collision. Mike tumbled off her shoulder and face-planted on the stone. When she jumped back off of the ground, leaving Mike on the stairs (now nursing a broken nose in addition to his black eye from last night), she found herself face to face with a a familiar vampire slightly glinting in the light.

"Zack?" she asked. "Wait, don't you remember me from the DCA meeting?"

Zack ignored her-merely three steps below him was a bleeding human. Drawn by his newborn thirst, he lunged for Mike.

/**

Man, I suck at updating on a consistent day of the week. I hope you enjoy the chapter anyway, things are starting to get climactic, but there's still quite a bit of story left :D Also, thanks to **furface294**for the review! [Start shameless self-plug] Also, if you're bored, check out Hufflepuff and my new Harry Potter fic, Red Solo Cup [end shameless self-plug].

**/


	25. The Challenge

Chapter 25

"This is _not_ the road to recovery!" cried Alice, throwing herself at Zack and heaving on his arms to restrain him. With his newborn strength, he began to slowly pull Alice forward despite her persistence.

Mike lofted his wand to defend himself, but was having a hard time with aim; it looked like there were two Zacks and two Alices and the lights were blinding him. What was he trying to do again?

"St-stupefy," he tried weakly. His spell clear missed Zack and ricocheted off the walls of the tunnel.

"I got this!" shouted Bella, punching Zack in the face with enough force to throw him backwards and disorient him. "How's _that_ for a punch-line? Get it, _punch_-line?" she said. Receiving no response, she extended her hand towards Mike to help him up. But laying on the ground in a state of complete disorientation, he vaguely waved around his arms trying to grasp her hand.

"What's wrong with him?" Bella asked Alice.

"What day is it?" he asked blindly.

"Concussion, probably. I think I dropped him on his head," Alice replied awkwardly.

"Psh, I used to get those all the time," replied Bella. "I survived. Well, in a manner of speaking." She lifted Mike up, who wobbled unsteadily on his feet. "Now are we going to rip this newborn to pieces or not?"

"We _can't_, Bella! I know him!"

"Wait, how?"

"We were in the same Dark Creatures support group! Killing him would definitely not be supportive!"

"Fine, we won't kill him yet, but if he tries to eat Mike, I'll rip off his head myself," Bella said. She gave Zack a good hard kick for good measure, and they pushed on up the staircase.

They only came around the corner on the landing when they reached a large, open, Gothic hall of stone, and lit by torches and the feeble glints of sunlight from the cracked glass window panes. In the center, a large weather-beaten mahogany table seated a crowd of people in dark cloaks with the hoods suspended. Alice recognized another-Helga, the veela she met at DCA, seated with a curious look on her face.

"Alice?" Helga asked in her German accent, recognizing her vaguely. "You were invited as well?"

"What?" Alice squeaked. Suddenly, the hall erupted into loud chaos at their presence.

Bella, panicking, hoisted Zack up by the front of his bloody polo shirt and shouted straight into his hungry face. "Tell me what is going on, kid, or so help me I'll bite your head off!"

"Some Alliance thing..." he said, continuing to eye the human. "They got the records of all registered dark creatures in the Ministry, made us come here weeks ago-" and suddenly his face went slack as he was hit by a stray green spell to the back. Alice squeaked in surprise.

"Mike, do something! Do something, do something, do something!" Bella shouted, shaking him.

"Wait, where...?" Mike said, blinking at the curious vision of Bella screaming in his face.

"We're in a climactic battle, Newton! Bring your A-game!"

"My head hurts," he replied unhelpfully.

Bella growled. Was she this pathetic as a human? But from behind her she heard a loud shout to freeze.

She turned slowly to face the entire company cornering them. "Drop your wands!" called the man. Mike, still confused, did so. Bella and Alice put up their hands. "This is the skilled team?" said the man incredulously to someone behind him.

Jessica's immediately distinguishable voice piped up, "They're not at their best right now."

"Enough, Stanley," sighed a figure in the back. The company parted slightly to create an aisle for him to approach the front. He was tall, hefty, and perfectly polished, from his coiffed hair to his manicured hands. "Bruce Scott, leader of the wizarding free world. Soon to be less free, but I digress. You're one of Kirk's kids?" he addressed Mike.

"I'm sorry, what day is it, sir?" Mike said.

"Your abilities were sorely overstated," Scott remarked disdainfully. "Ah, and the lovely Bella Swan. Thank you for destroying the Volturi. We all owe you our gratitude. How do you feel about fruit baskets?"

"You're a fruit basket," she replied harshly.

He sniffed at her. "And I don't know this one," he observed about Alice. "Not a werewolf, to be sure. But nevermind her. We have some business to discuss."

"What business?" asked Mike deliriously. "Wait, you're Secretary Scott! Do you know what day it is?"

Bella's eyes widened at the information. "Scott actually _leads_ the alliance?"

"I multitask," he replied. "Aren't you curious about why you're here at all? Or would you rather just be obliviated and sent home to your mother? Though Stanley may have ruined that prospect for you, I'm sorry."

"What do you mean?" Mike asked, blinking. "And what day is it, again?"

"Tim Kirk's entire secret organization is non-existent. The whole time you were working for him, you were working for me, in training. You three are incredibly talented for having stayed alive for this long, and that deserves a special privilege. But I won't trifle with you. How would you like to be a part of a special team of Aurors in my new world order?"

Bella couldn't help herself. "Are you an idiot? What makes you think we would accept your offer? I mean unemployment isn't _that_ bad!"

"Yet," Alice added quietly.

"You're so sassy, but you're the idiot. _Imperio_," he said. Alice, unsuspecting, instantly fell victim, and her eyes glazed over. Mike may have stood a chance had he not a severe head injury. Bella began to panic when she suddenly remembered her mind shield and easily expanded it to Mike and Alice. They both suddenly returned to their normal selves.

"Actually, _you're_ the idiot, because _I_ happen to have the most convenient superpower ever," Bella replied smirkingly.

Scott attempted to hide his surprise. "I could still kill you all," he replied.

"Not if I killed you first," Bella responded. "And trust me, I'll make it much more painful than your pitiful human brain can imagine."

He scowled. "Challenge accepted."


	26. The Curse

Chapter 26

"Restrain Newton and the short vampire," Scott commanded to the room. "and clear the floor. NOW!"

Utterly befuddled, the villains vanished the main table, grabbed a hold of Mike and Alice, and removed themselves to stand against the wall, leaving only Bella and Scott in the middle of the grand hallway. The dim light glinted off of Bella's skin and cast crystalline reflections on the weathered stone floor.

Bella focused her vision on Scott, observing his every detail. He removed his cloak, revealing a somewhat prototypical outfit: black suit pants, a starched, white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, and a black silk tie. Though the professional attire would suggest a less physically capable opponent, Bella knew better than to underestimate him. Though middle aged, he was in reasonably good shape and projected an extreme confidence in his abilities. She wondered vaguely if he had been an Auror before ascending to the Secretary of Magic position.

"How about these for rules, little snot," Scott said in a silky political voice, "We fight to the point of death. If you win, you and your friends can scurry back home unharmed and live relatively normal lives. If I win, I imperious your friends and they become part of my legion."

Bella growled assent.

"We bow, then we begin," Scott reminded her, bowing gallantly. Bella barely inclined her head, and like that, they launched into action.

Bella was right not to underestimate Scott. Despite her dazzling speed, he had incredible skill at anticipating her moves and judging his aim accordingly. Flash after flash of light surrounded her as she deftly swerved between each one. With each dodge she came closer to the corner she was just pinned in, and eventually backed straight into an Alliance member, who gasped at impact. Bella shoved him downwards and launched herself forward over his shoulders, aiming for Scott.

Scott saw Bella's blurred form flying towards his head and dodged just enough for her heel to connect with his shoulder, displacing it from the socket. He winced with pain just long enough for Bella to double back and engage him in hand to hand combat.

Here, Bella clearly began to dominate. She pummeled him steadily, and Scott knew he had to get back on the offensive or he would soon lose. He lifted his wand to stupefy her, but Bella whacked his arm, setting his aim off and sending a curse flying to his right and shattering the adjacent, ancient window, spraying everyone in the room with shards of glass.

Desperate, Scott reached his arm straight up, sending a reduction curse towards the ceiling. Stones collapsed, pummeling them, until Scott protected himself with a shield charm. Bella was completely shocked as she was slowly beaten down by the stones. She karate chopped the few that fell towards her, while still trying to surge towards Scott.

But now she was slow. Scott lofted his wand-Bella reached out-Scott shouted something intelligible-a green light flashed-Bella watched it shoot towards her instantaneously-and then everything went black.

The killing curse hit Bella square in the chest. She fell motionless on the stone floor.

"BELLA!" Alice shrieked. "BELLA!" She struggled to wrench herself away from her captors, throwing a much stronger vampire off of her in her rage. The other grabbed her around the waist, but she agilely slipped through his grip and flung herself across the room to her sister's body.

"Come on, Bella, wake up," she muttered madly. Bella didn't stir, even after Alice gave her a hard slap across the face. She sobbed drily as the guard pulled her away, her whole family gone.

Scott dusted the rubble off his shoulders. "Little brat," he muttered. "Well you heard Swan-Cullen-whatever she is. Ready to pay up on your side of the bet, little miss vampire?" he sneered turning to Alice. Alice hissed brutally in reply. "And you, Newton-"

"What's happening? Where's Bella? Oh!" he muttered. "What day is it?"

Scott sighed. "Pathetic. _Imperio_." Mike's and Alice's faces fell blank. Scott smirked slightly. "Take note, my comrades," he addressed his cloaked companions. "Not much of our future opposition will be as stubborn as these kids, but this is but one battle out of many in our quest for a new world order. Now to the final stage of our plan-return to America, harvest the rest of Kirk's recruits, and return to the West Coast to provide our final 'solution.'"

"What do we do with Bella?" Jessica asked petulantly.

"Just leave the body. No one will think to come here looking," Scott replied. "Pity we lost her. She would have been a good fighter." He shrugged and stated loudly, "To the portkeys!"

The company abandoned the great hall and descended the spiraling stairs to depart from Azkaban, leaving the body of Bella amidst the rubble on the stone floor.

/**

OH SNAP OH SNAP. Thanks to **s87griffn, **and everyone else who has this story on alert for that matter. Sorry for missing an update week, I've been so busy with real life I haven't had time to write or publish! Anyway, have a nice day!

**/


	27. The Assassins

Chapter 27

Four sweaty boys and a dishevelled girl crammed themselves unceremoniously into the elevator in the Seattle Aurors' office complex and pressed the button to the 12th underground floor.

"Jake," Lavender spoke softly, "I've never assassinated anyone before, but I am pretty sure this is not the smartest way to do it."

"What do you mean?" he said. "How else do you think we should get rid of Kirk?"

"More stealthily," she suggested. "Like not waltzing into the Aurors' office and knocking on Kirk's door! All he needs is a sneakoscope to figure out we're not _actually_ all registering as werewolves."

"Gosh, Lavender, why do you have to be so down on Jacob?" Josh cut in. "I think it's an awesome idea."

"Dude, if you love Jacob so much, why don't you marry him?" Will replied immaturely.

"Because that's not legal in Washington, idiot!" Josh snapped. "Don't be so homophobic!"

"Shut up already!" Jake snapped. "As soon as this elevator door opens, we storm the agency and find Kirk. Got it?"

"Got it," everyone replied in unison, with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

With a tiny _ding_, the elevator doors opened on the 12th floor, and lo and behold, a crowd of Aurors, wands all levelled at the werewolf pack, greeted them.

With a quick "point taken" addressed to Lavender, Jacob launched out of the elevator and phased in mid-air, landing on a whole mob of Aurors. The other three boys ran out exuberantly and phased, while Lavender slinked out through the chaos. Wand in hand, she slipped back down the hall to Kirk's office while the Aurors were engaged with the werewolves. They must not have noticed she was in the elevator with all the boys, because she was able to stealthily slip by them all. She took down any unexpected obstacles with a quick stunning spell until she reached the office. The door was locked, so standing back and cringing up, she spoke, "_Reducto_."

The door, in fact most of the wall, crumbled before her decent reductor spell, and she found Kirk in his office, scowling at her. He leaned against his desk on the far side of the room, crossing his arms unpleasantly.

"You!" she squeaked, at a loss for what else to say. It was way too awkward, and she hadn't noticed how magnificent his biceps were when she saw him last, but now they were a bit of a distraction.

"Stupefy," he said, somewhat boredly, ending her momentary freeze-up. She leaped out of the way with a squeal and returned his curse with one of her own. He dissolved her stupefy with a simple shield charm.

"Do you seriously think that you can duel me, an expert Auror, as a twenty-something tea shop girl?" he growled, easily flicking another spell in her direction, which she deflected with a shield of her own.

The thought had honestly not entered her mind. Her confidence wavered momentarily, but decided this wasn't the best time for self doubt, so instead of answering his insult, he hit him with a jelly legs jinx.

Kirk was taken off guard and suddenly felt his legs wobble uncontrollably. She couldn't help but giggle at him, and tried to take advantage of the moment with a body bind, but he reacted quicker, blasting her across the room.

Lavender flew through the air into the opposite wall, knocking down some art deco prints and shattering their glass frames.

"_Stu_-"

"_Expelliarmus_!" he cried over her, disarming her. Her wand was ripped from her hand and shot towards Kirk, who caught it ably. He approached her, his wand pointed at her threateningly. "I can get rid of you now, or have you arrested and convicted of spying and execute you. Which do you prefer?"

"Mr. Kirk, you are a two-faced bastard! Excuse my French!" she shouted.

"_Silencio_. You know, I hate working with werewolves. I prefer fighting them. And though all of you were actually in 'training' for Scott, we'll keep it as a secret between you and me that as soon as you and the Black kid were through, I would've disposed of you two myself," he spoke.

She glowered at him silently.

"Though I suppose my team of guards are doing that right now," he added. "Now to take care of you-_Avada_-"

Lavender cut him short with a right hook. He stumbled back, coughing in shock. "AVADA-"

But he was cut off once again when Jacob burst through the non-wall and tackled him. Unfortunately silent, Lavender responded to his heroic entrance with jazz hands. Jake wrenched both wands from Kirk's hands and whacked him into the desk like a golf ball using his tail as a club. He dropped Lavender's wand back in her hand as if in a game of fetch (the wand was unfortunately drooly and kind of tooth marked). Peter Uley stumbled into the room and stood with Jacob and Lavender surrounding Kirk. She non-verbally put him in a full body bind and he rigidly fell to the ground.

Jake and Peter started barking at her, as if she could understand them, but she had no clue. Jacob rolled his eyes and phased back to human form. "First, um, kill him! Secondly, get us out of here!" he said as soon as he could speak.

She rapidly motioned with her hands and silently mouthed disapproval.

"What is _wrong_ with you?" he asked. She silently sighed, dragged Kirk's body by the ankles, accidentally banging his head on the desk. Jacob did not understand her reluctance to kill the jerk, but willing to placate her, he lifted Kirk up on his shoulders and said, "Okay then, we'll take him with us!" He pulled her along by the hand and motioned to Peter. They ran down the hall towards the elevator. Josh and Will had cleaned up, and the gang of Aurors were listless on the ground.

Lavender earnestly pressed the elevator button. The wait was painful, and when the door opened there was only an old woman with a tennis-ball walker patiently waiting in the middle. The scantily clad pack smashed themselves into the elevator around the old woman and eagerly pressed the main level button.

The old lady sniffed loudly. "My nose isn't working too proper any more, but I think you folks may need a shower... and some chastity, you are dressing _so inappropriately!_ Back when I was a young witch in the 1890s, we never would have thought to-"

But she was cut off when they reached the ground level and a security force was waiting for them.

"We need to apparate, now!" Jake shouted. Lavender held out her arm, and the pack held on tightly.

"Now where are you chilluns going?" the woman in the elevator called too loudly. "I haven't finished-"

But with a crack, they disapparated.

/**

Almost finished! But I still haven't finished writing :o Thanks for sticking with me so far, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

**/


	28. The Battle Begins

Chapter 28

The wolf pack sat on the curb in Seattle, laying low from the Aurors. Stupefied Tim Kirk was stuck head first in a trash can while the werewolves snacked on Chicken McNuggets to refuel.

"For a city that's supposed to be at war, this is pretty boring," whined Josh, his mouth full of half chewed nuggets. "When do all the vampires show up?"

"Probably when the sun goes down. It's easier for them to hunt at night," Jake replied.

"What are we going to do then?" Lavender asked nervously.

"Kill them."

"But what about Kirk?" she said, motioning to the legs sticking out of the trashcan.

"I'm not sure why we haven't killed him already."

"When do we get to meet Bella Swan? I hear she is h-o-t-t!" Will said. "_And_ on the rebound!"

"Will you all shut up already?" Jacob snapped. "I don't know! Last time we were in Seattle, we were in this alleyway, so we're just going to chill here till Bella shows up and maybe kill some vampires in the meanwhile, and then Marshmallow Man can deal with Kirk-"

Suddenly, the entire pack shut up. A slight shadow slipped across the alley, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of vampire. Lavender gripped her wand and squinted her eyes, struggling to see the threat in the darkening street.

Like a spring suddenly released, Peter Uley jumped, phased mid-air, and landed on the unsuspecting vampire. The rest of the phased werewolves joined in and ripped the vampire to pieces, and Lavender finished him off by lighting him aflame.

"Nice one, Uley! You've got the makings of another Sam!" Jacob wolf-thought to him.

Despite the insensitivity of the remark, Peter took it as a compliment and the wolves enjoyed the triumph of the first kill of the night. Their celebration froze up, however, when they were assaulted by the stench of a mob of vampires marching right past their hiding place.

Then they saw it: a great troop of vampires charging down the streets on foot, ravaging everything in their sight.

The boys stood frozen in momentary terror, but Lavender, scared senseless, shrieked, "MERLIN'S BEARD!"

Suddenly, the inattentive vampires turned to their direction and hissed menacingly.

The wolves sprang into action, attacking every vampire in sight. Lavender used every defensive spell she could remember, but the vampires were far faster than any opponent she had ever faced before. The wolves were not faring well themselves. Despite their improved teamwork and ferocity, the sheer number of vampires was overwhelming them.

A vampire hefted Josh into the air with both hands and threw him hard against the nearest building. He was knocked unconscious on impact. Another punched Lavender straight in the gut despite her best efforts. She squealed and gasped for air, and the vampire moved in for the kill, but Will launched himself at the vampire, grabbed its head in his jaws, and tossed the leech away.

Unfortunately, another vampire jumped Will at that moment, and crunched half of his bones with a tight squeeze. He howled in pain, and Lavender shot the best blasting spell she could at the vampire, throwing him off Will.

Though all the pack was intact, or at least alive, the enemies were clearly wearing them down. Jacob was pinned against a wall being pummelled by three different vampires, fighting as fiercely as possible but losing, when suddenly the three simply turned and ran. Most of the vampires in the alley, in fact, had suddenly turned and stopped or ran away quite inexplicably.

Suddenly, the alley was filled with spellfire. Jacob phased back and threw himself to the ground, out of the way. The remaining vampires high-tailed it, and the crew assessed their situation.

Will was human, and limping, but clearly healing already. Josh too had phased back, but was out cold. Lavender probably broke a few ribs but was breathing okay, and Peter and Jacob were bruised but intact.

At the end of the alley stood their savior, donning a wizard's cloak and observing them stoically.

"Mike!" Lavender gasped gleefully. "You guys are here! Where's Bella and Alice?"

"It's about time you showed up, Newton," Jacob said uncharitably. "We already nabbed Kirk for you, but we thought you may want to take care of him yourself." Jake gestured towards the trash can they had stuck Kirk in, but realised that Kirk was gone. "Okay well we did have him at one point, my bad-"

But Mike didn't respond. Instead, he clutched his wand tightly, his hand shaking, as a few other cloaked wizards, and Alice, gathered behind him.

"You have your orders," said a familiar voice from behind them.

"Kill them," Tim Kirk ordered.

Mike began to raise his wand involuntarily. His face spasmed as something inside of him fought the orders.

Kirk became impatient. "Problem, Newton? _Imperio_!" he called drily.

Mike raised his wand.

Jacob was not going to wait another minute. He phased and lunged at Mike, but right as he was about to pin him, Alice threw herself in the way. Jacob slammed against her petite yet rock hard body and fell back. Peter jumped up to engage them, taking on one or two other wizards who were now shooting a variety of spells their way.

Gathering her Gryffindor courage, Lavender threw herself into battle with Kirk, wildly flinging spell after spell at him, as soon as she could think of them: stupefy, expelliarmus, even alohomora. Ever in control of his demeanor, he simply deflected most of her attacks with simple shields or curses of his own.

Jake grabbed Alice's evilly fashionable, yet imprudent cloak in his jaws and flung her away (with a little too much glee), but she deftly ducked, caught his tail, and gave him a similar treatment. Mike immediately hit him with a stupefy, which significantly slowed him down.

Lavender's jelly legs jinx finally hit its mark, and Kirk fell over. But as she moved in, a werewolf flew out of nowhere and crashed right into her. She pushed the limp body of Will off of her, but Kirk disarmed her readily and held her at wand-point.

"You shouldn't have asked for a rematch," Kirk spoke to her. "Thank you for sparing my life, though I do not think I could return the favor."

Panicking, Lavender grabbed Kirk's wand and wrenched it from his grasp. "_Petrificus Totalus!_" she cried, and Kirk fell over paralysed. "Trust me, Mr. Kirk, I won't make that mistake again!" she squealed desperately.

"Drop the wand," Mike said slowly, as his three companions pointed their wands at her. Alice held Jacob in a death grip, squeezing him tightly as he howled.

"Never!" she cried recklessly. "_Stupefy!_"

Her spell hit an unsuspecting Alice, who toppled over, setting Jacob free, who wobbled unsteadily. The crew all shot spells at her at once. She dove to the ground, covering her head with her hands instinctively.

Her face cold against the worn, wet pavement, she shook, waiting for a killing curse to finish her off. But the curse didn't come. Suddenly, she heard a clattering of wands falling to the ground, followed by groaning and confused chatter. She peeked up, and found that all of the Alliance wizards had ceased their attack suddenly. The three other wizards, apparently acquaintances, were chatting animatedly and confusedly, while Mike was sitting with his head between his knees, groaning.

"Mike!" she cried, rushing over to him, Alice, and Jacob. "Are you okay? What happened? Where's Bella?" He didn't respond.

She sighed, turning to Alice. "_Ennervate._" She awoke with a start.

"Lavender? Are we in Seattle?"

"Yes! Where were you guys?" she squeaked.

"Too loud," Mike muttered. "Speak quieter?"

"Where were you guys? How did you beat the imperius curse?" she whispered.

"_He_ didn't beat the imperius curse," said a voice from the shadows. "I did."

Lightning flashed. And from the shadows shone Bella Swan.

/**

Oh snap! Thanks to **Antara93 **for the review and **Jazzy-kins **and** Cyan-n-Magenta **for the follows.

**/


	29. Plan Man

Chapter 29

"Mind shield. I told you it was the most convenient superpower ever," Bella explained as they gaped at her.

"Bella! You died!" Alice cried.

"Bella _died_?" Lavender exclaimed.

"There's only one way to kill a vampire," Jacob interjected. "Cut it up and burn the pieces. Can I get an ice pack or something? Perky Pants over here may have broke a couple ribs."

"Walk it off, Jake," Bella chided. "We need to find Scott and stop this nonsense."

"What nonsense, exactly?" Peter asked.

"Um, his army of evil and/or imperiused wizards? All the evil vampires rampaging through Seattle?" Bella suggested. "Well, Mr. 'Plan Man,' where do we start?"

"Bella, I can barely think straight. I have the hangover of the ages, my face is still swollen from when you punched me, and I'm not sure exactly what's going on or what day is it. Did someone drop me on my head?" he replied. Alice smiled sheepishly.

"Okay, we get it, we're all injured. NOW WALK IT OFF, AND THAT GOES FOR EVERYONE!" Bella shouted.

Mike pressed his fingers to his temples. "Okay, okay. Jacob, Alice, and the pack can work on taking down all the evil vampires. Lavender and I can worry about the wizards. Bella, I'll leave Scott to you."

Mike and Lavender magically revived Will and Josh, and Bella stubbornly ignored their starstruck stares.

"If we run in the opposite direction we came, it will lead us back to Scott," Mike suggested to Bella. "So we ought to go towards the water. Let's go."

Bella and Mike ran off, while Lavender lagged behind, reluctant to leave the pack.

"Well, good luck to you guys," she said, mostly to Jacob.

"Yep, I can feel my bones resetting as we speak. It's good to be a werewolf. Sucks it's not a full moon for you, though."

"I don't know, I kind of like being a girl better."

He smiled jovially. "Well you kick ass as a girl too. Now let's go kill some vampires! You better catch up to Mike and Bella." He hesitated, but pulled her into a crunching bear hug momentarily before pushing her off in the direction of her wizard hunting companions.

"Good luck, Lav!" Alice added, smilingly. "If we make it out of this alive, I think we each deserve some new wedges!" She turned to the pack with disgust. "Let's run, dogs."

They all charged in the opposite direction, chasing the mob of vampires that had attacked them previously. Lavender sighed, and sprinted to catch up with Mike and Bella.

/**

Filler chapter. Next one is more fun! Thanks to **sportytc **for the review!

**/


	30. The Duel

Chapter 30

"How did you escape Azkaban anyway?" Mike asked Bella as they ran.

"I punched a dementor in the face," she replied curtly.

"That's not much of an explanation."

But before Bella could explain, Lavender cried for them to wait up and came sprinting up behind them.

"Bella, where are you headed?" she panted.

"The pier," Mike answered for her. "It's all very fuzzy in my brain but I think we all invaded there, whereas the vampire reinforcements came on the east side of the city."

"Can't we just let Scott's army take care of the vampires?" Lavender asked.

"If we do that, he's won!" he responded. "Besides, a large portion of them are here under his imperius, or orders, or promises that they'll have a whole city to feast on if they play along with his charade of defeating them. We get rid of Scott, we get rid of most of the vampires. The rest of the vampires we'll defeat in due time. It's all very comp-OH!" Mike was cut off when he smacked straight into the back of a witch that was standing, unyielding, at the foot of the pier.

"What are you doing in this sector, Newton? You're supposed to be hunting down the rest of that wolf crew!" Jessica snapped.

"We're not a 'crew,' we're a pack!" Lavender corrected. "And Mike's not working for you any more!"

Jessica blinked at Lavender, trying to determine where she had seen her before. "Hey! You're the 'wizard werewolf' girl who was hanging out with the Cullen!"

"My name is Lavender," she said with disdain.

"My name is Jessica," Jessica replied mockingly.

"My name is Bella Swan!" cried Bella, suddenly appearing behind Jessica. She drew back her leg and swung a massive kick to Jessica's pilates-toned butt. Jessica fell forward and onto the ground, and Mike and Alice leapt over her body.

"What the HELL?" Jessica cried.

"You've been a pain in my ass for years, Jessica, so I thought I'd return the favor!" Bella cackled.

"YOU'RE... JUST... SO... LAME!" Jessica called after her. Bella, Lavender, and Mike continued running, not looking back. Rage boiled under Jessica's skin at her easy defeat. "Running away, Mike? How about you come back and fight me like a man! Or are you avoiding a repeat of your humiliation at junior prom?"

Mike faltered a little in his run. "She's trying to bait you, Mike," Lavender said. "Ignore her."

But Jessica shot a hex at them anyway, missing Mike and hitting Bella, whose legs collapsed from under her. They skid to a stop.

"Mike, don't-" Lavender cried.

"Ignore Lavender, Mike," Bella cut in. "Go figuratively kick her ass. I already did it literally."

"_Unjellify_," he said, pointing his wand at Bella's legs. Bella hopped back up on her feet. "I'm going to have to face her sooner or later. And ignore what she said about prom, I _totally_ won."

Jessica cast another spell in their direction. "_PROTEGO_!" Mike cried, and the spell shattered against the shield. "Go!" he shouted at Bella and Lavender. "And try not to get too... ragey, Bella."

"Stop chatting with your girlfriend, Mike," Jessica taunted.

"If _only_," he replied. "_Expelliarmus!_"

"_Protego!_" she countered. "Too easy. _Petrificus totalus!_" Mike dove to the ground, narrowly missing the spell.

"_Stupefy!_" they cried together. The spellight met in mid-air and exploded above them in a brilliant red firework.

"_Reducto!_" Jessica yelled, aiming at the boards beneath Mike's feet. They began to collapse, and he staggered and plunged into the ocean below.

Jessica approached the gap, smirking to herself. She didn't see any evidence of Mike below, and satisfied, backed up to leap over the gap and pursue Bella and Lavender, until like a sudden thunder she heard Mike cry, "_ACCIO JESSICA!_"

Suddenly Jessica flew back helplessly and plunged into the ocean. The freezing waves lapped her skin as her eyes scoured the dark ocean for her opponent. "_Lumos maxima,_" she murmured while treading water. A great ball of light glowed in the air above her, reflecting off the glassy water.

"_BOMBARDA!_" a voice behind her called. With a bang and splash, a giant wave overwhelmed Jessica. Her mouth filled with salt water and she coughed and struggled, her straggly hair stuck in her watery eyes.

"_Homenem revelio!_" she coughed. In her blurred vision, a bulb gathered over Mike's head in her peripheral vision. "_Crucio!_"

Mike cried aloud in pain, and began to sink underneath the waves. Soon he was underwater and Jessica lost sight of him. She peered into the water, searching for his blonde hair underneath its surface. Suddenly, Jessica was blown out of the water in a great explosion, her wand flung out of her hand. It bobbed like a piece of driftwood on the waves. She grasped for it, flailing, trying to float. Mike popped up from beneath the water, coughing, "_Stu-stupefy!_" He missed, but blasted her wand farther away. With a surge, she swam forward and attacked, grasping at Mike's shirt and tearing it down the middle. She surged again, pushing his head under the water, but Mike desperately struggled and shot his head above the water level and shot another spell, barely missing Jessica. With a last struggle, he focussed all of his thoughts on a stupefying spell and with a blast, hit her straight in the temple. She fell limp immediately and Mike threw his head above water, coughing and gasping.

He threw Jessica's arm around his shoulder and paddled them to the pier. Ignoring the barnacles tearing into his arms, he gripped the nearest post holding the pier up, catching his breath, clinging against the rip tides threatening to pull them underneath the water. With his remaining strength, he pulled himself up and climbed the the pole. (Fortunately they were not too far out, and the climb was not long.) He threw himself on the deck, gasping, and said, "_Levicorpus,_" pulling Jessica out of the water, and dumping her on the deck. "_Petrificus totalus._" She went stiff, stuck in a petrifying spell. "You're welcome, Jessica," he said ruefully to himself, and then collapsed onto his back panting for air, and praying Bella would have his luck.

/**

Getting near the end here. You like?

**/


	31. The Simple Shopgirl

Chapter 31

Bella and Lavender continued on their mad dash, not faltering even when part of the pier exploded behind them. ("Badasses don't look at explosions," Bella reminded Lavender.)

Unnervingly, there was little in the way of guard, and Bella suspected the flight seemed too easy. They reached the end of the pier. Bella scanned the scenery for enemies to no avail-there were a few closed businesses, but no evil wizards as far as she could see.

In her peripheral vision, she caught a blue light flash and the sound of glass shattering from inside a McDonald's at the end of a pier. "Bella!" Lavender gasped, but she quieted when Bella stared daggers at her. In the shadows, Bella and Lavender crept towards the entrance and peeked through the glass door. A man with considerable girth Lavender recognized as August, the American who had kidnapped Alice and her. He and a two other agents were chatting animatedly, while two other men sat aloof and quiet. Bella one as Scott, the other as Kirk. The sombre turn of their countenance was astounding compared to their cocky manner earlier.

"Unlock the door, wait for my signal. Then take out as many of the agents as possible," Bella murmured. Lavender swallowed hard.

"_Alohomora_," she whispered. The door unlatched with a loud _clack_.

The entire room went silent and immediately all the heads turned towards the door. Lavender turned away from the door and ducked out of sight, her back pressed up against the outer wall. Her heart beat up in her throat and she didn't dare to peek.

"Bella," she barely whispered, "What now?"

But Bella was out of sight. Lavender didn't believe Bella could abandon her; vampires had strange ways and she probably had some sort of a plan. But being alone in the company of five hostile, well trained wizards was disquieting.

Bella leaped up on the roof of the restaurant and prowled across silently. The entire building was concrete, but the back entrance was glass, exposing a children's play area. Bella lowered herself over the edge of the roof. Through the windows between the main restaurant and the play area, she saw the three previously chatty agents creep slowly to the door where Lavender waited.

Lavender heard their footsteps faintly, padding across the sticky tile floor. She dared not move and tightened her grip around her wand as she heard the door creak open next to her, ready to fight, signal or no signal.

But suddenly, a giant crash sounded like a monster truck in a china shop. The wizard at the door lost concentration for a split second and Lavender cried, "_Petrificus totalus!_" Her hex hit the wizard square in the chest and he fell backward onto the tile. Lavender caught the door and pre-emptively cast a shield charm.

"Kirk, Root, to the back entrance!" Scott commanded. "August, deal with the punk at the front!"

August was already on the orders, and sent a brutal curse Lavender's way that shattered against her shield. The luminescent pieces revealed Lavender's face to him and he smirked slightly. "A simple shopgirl, are you? Ha!" he chortled. "You're cleverer than I thought. _Crucio!_"

Lavender seized in pain on the ground. "I don't have the hubris to trifle with you any longer," August remarked to the terrified, gasping witch. "_Avada Kedavra!_"

With a terrific burst of will, Lavender rolled along the ground, barely dodging the curse, which nonetheless fried her long blonde hair at the ends.

His temper grew as he yelled again, "_Avada Kedavra!_" But simultaneously Lavender cried the same thing and the spells collided. Lavender's fizzled out on impact, but it deflected August's.

"Half-hearted curse," August remarked. "The unforgivable curses require more convic-"

"_Stupefy!_" she interrupted. Unprepared for such brazen disregard for his snarky monologuing, he fell to the floor, unconscious.

Lavender hopped to her feet. The main area of the restaurant was clear, except for August and the other wizard she took down. The play area in the back, however, held Root, who was on the floor, supposedly out cold. Lavender assumed Scott, Kirk, and Bella were in the area as well, but she couldn't see them. Taking a deep breath and gathering her courage (an activity she found herself engaged in a lot over the last few days), she stumbled across the restaurant to the back area and slipped through the glass door.

/**

Pushin' on! No update last week because of vacation shenanigans! Thanks for reading, anyway. I would love to hear what you guys think (in other words, reviews = good stuff).

**/


	32. The Nightstalker

Chapter 32

Scott grunted. If you needed something done right, you had to do it yourself. He had no idea what the heck someone was doing breaking the glass in his hideout, probably some moron vampire that needed some serious correction.

"_Homenem revelio_," he grumbled. A light appeared above the heads of Kirk, prowling around the perimeter of the play area and Root, who was hidden under a jungle gym structure. No other lights appeared. Definitely a vampire, then.

"Whoever you are," Scott declared loudly, "you're not doing your job. Get back out in the city and start wreaking havoc, if you want to live." He heard a slight whippish sound and turned around instantly. Root was gone.

"ROOT!" Scott called loudly. He heard a thud behind him and shot a spell in the direction. Root's body had thumped against the remaining glassed in wall and had fallen to the ground.

Kirk sent a significant look in Scott's direction and raised his blonde eyebrows upwards. Straining his eyes, there seemed to be a shadow disconnected from the rest on top of the play structure, above a netted area above the ball pit.

"_Stupefy!_" he muttered, and the spell splashed against an empty spot as the predator dodged out of the way and dove into the nets below.

Kirk ran at the figure, jumped, and grasped a high support pole near the netting. He gasped as he recognized Bella Swan in the measley moonlight filtering through the restaurant. Before he could exclaim, she kicked him in the face and he fell backwards off the play structure and onto the floor. She smirked happily at her easy success so far until spell after spell shot her way. She dodged the first three, but the fourth found its mark and her legs locked together motionless. She flopped on the netting unsuccessfully, when Scott ran over and threw himself on the structure, heaving himself up on Bella's netting level.

"Who are you and what the hell do you think you're doing?" he said angrily.

Bella snapped her neck towards him, flipping her hair out of her face. "I'm Bella Swan and I'm bringing you down."

With that she ripped open the netting with her teeth and she and Scott plummeted into the ball pit. Balls flew everywhere, and Scott surfaced, searching for disturbances under the surface. Suddenly, he felt his leg being pulled deeper into the pit. "_Relashio!_" he cried, and Bella was propelled backwards, away from his leg.

Kirk shook his aching head and spit out a tooth. His vision was coming in and out of focus, and he tasted blood in his mouth. At point blank range, Bella's blurry head was sticking out of the ball pit. "_Avada-_"

"_Stupefy_," a girlish voice cut him off. He went limp, helpless, against Lavender's spell. "You're 0-3, Kirk," she added somewhat snarkily.

"Lavender!" Bella said. "My legs!" But Scott quickly hit Lavender with a petrifying spell. He aimed the next at Bella and she flopped over to the side to dodge. She grabbed an armful of balls and began chucking them at 100 miles per hour like she was playing vampire baseball with the Cullens.

Ball after ball pelted Scott until he was nearly buried. Bella dragged herself over to Scott to finish him off when the balls around Scott exploded in all directions, and Scott held Bella at wandpoint.

"How are you alive?" he demanded.

"There's only one way to kill a vampire, Scott," she said. "Do I really have to explain this again? I feel like I just explained this like an hour ago."

"Well this time, stay dead. _Avada-_"

"Save your breath," she grunted. She pushed herself up with her arms and launched herself at Scott feet first. She struck him like lightning, knocking the breath out of him. He fell over on his back, and Bella pinned him by the neck. He waved his wand arm around, struggling to hex her. She smacked his wand out of his hand.

He began to gasp at her grasp on his neck. Bella watched his eyes roll and his face blue. She sighed, and released him, choking. She picked up his wand and crumbled it to dust in her hand. Kirk stared at her with apprehension.

"I'm not going to kill you. I don't care enough to kill you," Bella said. "Yet... I doubt your little slave monkey 'vampire hunters' appreciate the fact they're still under your curse." She gave him a well placed hit to the side of the head, knocking him out.

Bella looked around. Everyone around her was petrified or out cold. "I was expecting more glory and applause," she muttered. "I guess I'll just have to wait... _or_..." she whistled loudly, and a great cold wave of air began to fill the room...


	33. The Swarm

Chapter 33

Jacob led the pack in a charge down the avenue, demolishing careless vampires in their path. The streets stank of the sickly sweet scent of vampire corpses as the werewolves attacked, this time with the advantage of surprise, and of Alice, who fought gracefully despite her psychic abilities being limited by the presense of werewolves. Most of the force were newborns that the Dark Alliance created in dearth of experienced, bitter vampires already flocking to the northwest U.S., but they worked just as well for their true purpose - a havoc wreaking distraction. Alice's flexible, light style was suited towards fighting strong, but reckless newborns, while the werewolves merely plowed through whatever was in their way to the best of their ability.

They came to a point, however, where they were completely surrounded by vampires in the middle of the street. Peter, ever resourceful, had taken to clenching cars, abandoned by terrified (and often dead) humans, in his jaws and bludgeoning vampires with the steely weapon. Jake had a similar strategy-except he used one vampire corpse to bludgeon another. They fought valiantly, but their endurance began to wane and the vampires gained the advantage, nearly killing Josh, were it not for Alice killing his attacker and loyally hefting the injured werewolf up on her petite shoulders.

Then the air became cold; their hope began to recede. The street lights dimmed under oppressive fog. The pack huddled together for warmth and comfort as they were surrounded by dense fog. But when all hope seemed lost, the fog glided on past them. When it cleared, they saw the crowd of vampires attacking them from all sides were unconcious on the ground. Alice ran up to the closest vampire - an scowling ginger - and examined him for signs of life, a difficult (and somewhat ironic) task to perform on a vampire. But as far as she could tell, the vampire was dead.

"Shall we clean up then?" she chimed daintily to the boys behind her, who were far more affected by the dementors' prescense than ever-cheery Alice.

They warily disposed of the vampire bodies, and the old villains finally knew peace-more than most victims of dementor attacks can boast, as their bodies live on while their souls sit separate in the bellies of their attackers.

All over the city, dementors swept through the streets, incapacitating all of the vampires effortlessly. If depressed, moody, hormonal vampires with eerie pasts had one weakeness greater than werewolf jaws - it was a dementor drawn to their extreme emotions.

/

Mike Newton fought back exhaustion and injury, casting his patronus charm all around him to prevent the onslaught, but to his surprise, the dementors merely passed him by without any more trouble than their proximal side effects.

He was thoroughly intrigued, but hesitant to leave Jessica to her own devices. Fortunately he did not have to wait long for his curiousity to be sated, because the dementor swarm returned.

At the head of the swarm, a large dementor clutched in his knobby, scabbed hands a slim young woman with hair fluttering wildly in the wind. The first genuine smile in too long a time graced her pale face. And when Mike squinted his eyes to their limits, and peered behind the hood of the dementor, he could vaguely make out a deep blue bruise around its eye.

/**

Whoa guys! Sorry for the slow update. College is kicking my butt this year, but never fear, I am committed to seeing this story through. The good news is, I think my writing quality increases when I actually have to use my brain regularly again. Thanks to **phoenixyfriend** and **stoly123** for the follows, you guys rock!

**/


	34. Epilogue

Epilogue

Bella sifted intently through the pile of Every-flavored beans before her, pulling out all the red beans and pushing all others to the other side of the ottoman in the Newtons' living room.

"Bella, what are you doing?" Mike complained.

"I'm looking for the blood flavored beans," she snapped back.

"If you touch all of them then no one else can eat them."

"Don't be so prissy, Marshmallow," Jacob snorted. "Do vampires have cooties?"

"No, but like any living creature they have infectious diseases and with my mom in her condition-"

"Are you giving our guests a hard time on my account, Michael?" Mrs. Newton's feeble voice called from down the hall.

"Yes, mom, but they deserve it!" he yelled back distractedly, as he slapped Bella's hand away from the pile of beans in front of her, which hurt him more than her.

"You seem a little bit antsy, Mike," Lavender suggested softly.

"I'm sorry, I just can't stand sitting here and watching Katherine, oh whatever her name is, run around and try on dresses and act like a princess when... when people like Jessica"-his hand clenched involuntarily in anger-"are let off easy by the Wizengamot and allowed to torture whomever they want just because the jury wouldn't take the words of 2 vampires, 2 werewolves, and a teenage 'delinquent' seriously-"

"It's Katherine Heigl," Alice cut in frostily. "And we're trying to watch the movie here!"

Mike was not satisfied.

Alice sighed. "Scott and Kirk are behind bars. The vampire problem is quelled. And E.J. hasn't tried to kiss anyone in weeks!" she replied. "It's not all bad."

"I'm still not sure if I'm okay with Bella partially naming her pet dementor after me," Jacob grumbled.

"He's kind of... cute, after you get over the scary, soul-sucking aspect," Lavender offered.

Frustrated, Mike stood up and strode out of the room. They heard the front door creak open and close from the family room.

All eyes turned to Bella, who was still furiously sorting Every Flavored Beans. She looked up to meet their expectant looks.

"How is he my problem?" she grumbled. But nevertheless, she stomped down the hall and out the front door to the porch. Mike was sitting on the top step under the bannister, barely out of the perpetual Forks rain.

"Okay, what gives, Mike?" Bella asked, plopping down beside him ungracefully.

"I spent the last 3 years of my life training to hunt vampires, thinking I was making a difference, when I was really being trained by an evil organization bent on world domination, who then essentially raped my brain, forced me to conform to their will, and turned my own powers against everything I stand for; when we win, half the Alliance wizards get off easy because Wizengamot's latent racism; and then I come home and find out the Jessica tortured my mother half to insanity, putting her in the hospital, and my father has been missing for weeks. And you're asking me what's wrong? What do you expect me to do? Come crawling back to Northwest Bank and beg for them to renew their arithmancy job offer? Watch chick flicks with your sister and actually enjoy them? I only ever wached chick flicks to pick up ladies! What self respecting dude actually likes them for their own sake?"

A window pane exploded behind them in a burst of accidental magic as Mike ranted.

"Well then what do you want to do?" Bella asked bluntly.

"I want to become an auror! A real, self respecting one! Who does something good in this world!" he cried. "But with all of Scott's friends in the Department watching me like a hawk I find this unlikely," he said, his voice cracking in bitter amusement.

"So be a vigilante. It's what I do," Bella suggested.

Mike's eyes widened in surprise. "I thought you were done with revenge."

"Yeah," she said, and lapsed into silence momentarily.

"But the thing is, I'm not done doing what's right. Because when I was, erm, dating Edward," she began in a faltering voice, "I let a lot of things... slide. We... we went to Italty at one point-long story-and ran into the Volturi. And there was a whole room of humans. Innocent, frightened human tourists, and Edward and I left them in the room, and the Volturi slaughtered them all. They do that every day. And we could hear the cries inside and I just kept seeing that one woman, with the rosary, who had looked at me as we were walking out, like she was crying for help, and I didn't do anything. The Cullens were the 2nd largest clan, next to the Volturi, and we could have fought them, we could have saved those people, but we didn't, we just let them die, and now the Volturi's gone, but there are still vampires out there preying on humans who can't protect themselves, or even know that they have to, and I can't sit down now. I'm living forever and I can't undo that but I can at least find something to live for, now that Edward's... gone."

Mike was clearly stunned by her speech.

"So I think Jake's bailing on me to make googly eyes at Lavender, and Alice is still working out those business plans for her boutique, so do you want to be my sidekick now instead?" she asked brusquely.

"Sidekick?" Mike snorted. "How about partner?"

"How about you start small and work your way up. If you manage to be more helpful than annoying I might promote you," Bella snarked.

"You're the annoying one with your stupid catchphrases and terrible sense of humor," Mike replied.

"But I'm the main character and I could kick your ass in a second, so you have to do what I say," Bella snapped back.

"Fine!" Mike shouted.

"Fine!" Bella replied.

Mike hopped up and threw open the front door. "MOOOOM! Going out to be a vigilante, I'll be back for dinner!"

"MICHAEL! What did you just say?" she shrieked back, but he closed the door discreetly.

"Shall we?" Mike asked, holding out his arm.

Bella hesistated. "We can't leave till I think up a catchphrase for our departure. I like 'Allons-y' but that's already taken and-"

But to shutting her up, Mike grabbed Bella's arm and they disapparated into the night.

/**

Hello ladies and gents, sorry to leave you hanging after the last chapter but now it's safe to say we're done with this. I hope you enjoyed reading it! Thanks to lyssmcgrath for the favorite and to everyone else who favorited or reviewed over the course of the story. Please do comment and tell me what you think, even if you thought it sucked; I'm 19 and I can handle criticism at this point, I promise. If you're really bored check out the other stories I wrote with my lovely sister, they are loads of randomness and fun mostly.

Ravenclaw out, peace!

**/


End file.
